This Medquity post explores the causes, complications, demographics, disparities, etc. of the obesity epidemic in the US, written by Archi Das Gupta. Obesity in America is a silent epidemic, harming American’s health slowly. According to CDC in terms of age people who are 20-39 years old, 40% of them are obese while middle-aged people who are 50-59, 44.8% of them are obese while elderly adults are 60 and older 42.8% contain it. There are a multitude of consequences for obesity such as it can lead to different types of cancer, coronary heart disease, hypertension, stroke, etc. Additionally, obesity is extremely expensive as obese people spend on money than a person who is of a healthy weight. National obesity-related medical costs in 2008 amounted to $147 billion. It is very expensive for an obese person but what makes it worse is that it can lead to less productivity. Many factors are leading to obesity such as eating differently than others. Oftentimes it is very expensive to eat healthily and this is because healthy foods are more expensive to farm and require human labor. Furthermore, those who live in low-income areas, rural areas do not have ready access to healthy foods. Additionally, Americans consume large amounts of sugar every day, which adds up to 152 pounds of sugar annually which means Americans consume 3 pounds of sugar each week. Another cause is that there is a large number of advertisements for food rich in salt, fat, and sugar. Also, the recommended portion sizes for the less healthy foods have increased leading people to consume more of the sugar, salt, fat-enriched foods. Another factor leading to obesity is that Americans get a limited amount of physical activity each day because for most activities we use cars. Also, there may be limited access to recreational parks and centers. Americans also spend too much time on technology as adults spend 11 hours on screens each day. Other factors that can lead to obesity are genetic conditions, a person's genetic makeup compiled with behaviors can lead to obesity. There are certain diseases and eating disorders and medications which can lead to obesity. Obesity favors certain groups more than others. African-American men and women are more likely to become obese than other races as 4 out of 5 African American women are obese. According to CDC through combined data from 2015 to 2017, it exhibits that 38.4% of non-Hispanic black adults have the highest prevalence of obesity. Additionally, 32.8% of Hispanic adults are obese followed by non-Hispanic white adults which are 28.6%. In 2018, non-Hispanic blacks were 1.3% more likely to be obese than non-Hispanic whites and from 2013-2016 non-Hispanic black women were 2.3% more likely to obese than non-Hispanic whites. According to NPR, about 38% of women are obese while 34% of men are obese across all age groups. Women are more likely to be obese within any group. In 2018 the age-adjusted percentage of people who 18 years old and over non-Hispanic Black males and non-Hispanic White males are both 31.2% obese. While for non-Hispanic Black females about 44.2% of them were obese compared to non-Hispanic white females who were 28.7% obese. According to CDC in 2020 the percentage of inactive physical activity among adults who did not meet federal physical activity guidelines were non-Hispanic Blacks which was 50.3% of them and Non-Hispanic whites which were 39.9% of them. Additionally, the percentage of some leisure-time physical activity that met the aerobic guidelines only, among non-Hispanic Black adults is 45.8% compared to Non-Hispanic whites adults which were 57.5%.
In conclusion, obesity is a silent epidemic that targets certain groups more than others. But this epidemic can be solved quickly through healthy alternatives such as Americans drink at least 1 sugary drink per day, this can be replaced by 100% fruit juice with seltzer and any other drinks with seltzer as plain carbonated seltzer will not make you gain weight. In addition, instead of sugar enriched cakes, candy bars, cookies replace crunchy fruits, vegetables, a bowl of unsweetened cereal, fruit salads. Furthermore, restrict your portion size by utilizing smaller dinnerware, eat slowly, start each meal with a glass of water and when eating out ask for smaller portions. The battle with obesity may not be quickly eradicated but Americans can take steps to decrease it. Works Cited:
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Welcome to our blog, Medquity!Here we will post extra articles on health disparities to display the profound health inequities in our healthcare system. These are updated every other weekend, so check back regularly! Archives
July 2021
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