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Daniel Johnson
Why is obesity growing so rapidly?
English 1010-037
Dr. Paul Anderson
8 December, 2014
Introduction:
Everyday we hear about the growing problem of obesity. This has become a major
problem in the US and all other developed countries, and is leading to a growing number of
health concerns such as type II diabetes, hypertention, heart disease, and even some cancers.
The media is always showing stories that are pointing fingers at whos to blame for this
epidemic. In the last decade we have created various enemies that we think are responsible for
the problem. Some people say that McDonalds and other fast food restaurants are to blame.
We have also demonized sugar, fat, soda, and other sources for being responsible for our
weight problems. These allegations target food manufactures to be the cause of obesity to be
the responsibility of the rather than the person who is consuming the food. This poses the
question; who or what is the cause of the growing obesity problem? The reason why this
question is of interest to me is because I plan on working in the health community once I
complete my education. To answer this question I decided to dig into the topic to answer some
of the questions that I have that have gone unanswered.
The first source that I chose to use for my research is the article Is Obesity a Disease?
by Dr. Tania Lombrozo that was published by NPR.com in July of 2014. I chose this source
because I have heard people call obesity a disease before but I wanted to find out why people
consider this to be a disease. To find this article, I did an internet search of whether obesity was
officially classified as a disease or not. I chose this article on National Public Radios website
because it not only answered my question but it also gave arguments that support obesity being

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a disease and arguments that were opposing obesity being a disease. The intended audience
of this article would be both the supporters of the American Medical Associations (AMA)
decision and the people that are opposed to it. The authors purpose was to show the health
community that the decision made by the AMA was not accurate.
She presents her argument by providing case studies and quotes from respected peers
in the field to show why the AMA made the decision that they did and why she felt that it was in
accurate. The authors argument was that there was not enough evidence to support the idea
that obesity is a disease. I agree with Dr. Lombrozo in the idea that the AMA was incorrect when
they classified obesity as a disease. From this article, I learned when people think of obesity as
a disease they began to think of obesity as helpless which caused them to loose their sense of
personal responsibilty. This article adds credibility to the problem of obesity because it shows
that people still can implement self control to overcome obesity. This article is important to my
research because it explains who classified obesity as a disease and why there is a large part of
the medical community that does not agree. The reason that Dr. Lombrozo is a very credible
source is because she is an associate professor of psychology as well as an affiliate of the
Department of Philosophy and a member of the Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences.
Something that was missing if there are any cases in which a person might not have control
over their health choices because of circumstances that are beyond their control.

Who is to blame for a persons obesity?

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The second source that I chose is an article about a woman who blames the lack of
money that she receives through unemployment and food vouchers from the english
government is not enough for her family to eat healthy. I found this article by searching obesity
on the Opposingviews.com. The article is titled 350-Pound Woman Says She Is Obese
Because She Doesnt Get Enough Of Taxpayer Money. This article was written by Mr. Khier
Casino and was published online at Opposingviews.com on September 27, 2014. The authors
purpose was to show that some people believe that they are not able to maintain a healthy
lifestyle because junk food that is less healthy is also more affordable. The authors intended
audience is the people of the UK that feel that living a healthy lifestyle is too expensive. I
disagree with Christina Briggs, of Wigan, England, who is the woman that is being interviewed
for this article because you dont have to eat healthy all the time to maintain a healthy body
weight. Ms. Briggs is still able to change other aspects of her life, such as exercise, that can
help her loose weight and live a little more healthy.
Another reason that why I disagree with her is because throughout the article the she is
constantly mentioning the reason why she cannot loose weight and the only time she mentions
how she could become more healthy is with some sort of incentive or reward from the
government. Although she says that she is unable to exercise because a gym membership is to
expensive, she seems to not even consider other forms of exercise. From this article, I learned
that the delusion of weight being something that people are completely powerless to, is not
exclusive to the US. This adds value to the subject of obesity because it shows that there are
people across the world that believe that they are pressured to make poor health choices
because of the financial burden. This article also shows that the current government assistance
systems that are in place need to be reevaluated. In the article the author mentions that Ms.
Briggs has two small children that are also living on the same diet that she is. Although the main
focus of the article is on Ms. Briggs (shown in figure 1), we must also concern ourselves with the

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state of nutrition for these children. If the we believe that children our the most precious asset
that we have then we need to ensure that all children are getting the education and exercise
that they need to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The credibility of this article does not come from
the author, but rather other interviews that the subject has conducted with Daily Mail and Closer
Magazine that the author used to find the information. What is missing from this article is how
you would treat a person who's weight is so out of control if they are not willing to change their
diet or exercise routine?

Figure 1
Currently, the best way to treat a person that has lost control of their weight is different
gastric surgeries and have shown very drastic reduction in a persons weight. But what are the
long-term weight loss effects of these surgical treatments? To answer this question I reviewed A
pilot study of long-term effects of a novel obesity treatment: omentectomy in connection with
adjustable gastric banding. This article was written by Thrne A, Lnnqvist F, Apleman J,
Hellers G, Arner P and was published in the International Journal of Obesity Volume 26,
Number 2 in February 2002, and can be found on Pages 193-199. I found this article by
searching obesity treatments on Google Scholar. The authors intended purpose is to show that
surgical procedures are showing continually positive results over large periods of time to help
people overcome obesity. The audience that the author intended to reach is anyone who is
considering have a surgical procedure to help them overcome their personal weight problems.
The authors left a very strong impression on me showing that there are substantial
improvements that can have longer term effects to help people that have a BMI greater than 35.

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I agree with the author that there are improvements that can be made but they are not 100%
effective. Following surgery the patient must still make drastic changes to their diet to maximize
the odds of success (see figure 2). I learned that these procedures do have positive long term
effects if the patient follows the doctors recommendations for post operation care. Before
reading this article I knew that there were instant effects from having these surgeries but I was
unsure of the longterm effects. This article is relevant to my research because it show that there
are proven surgical solutions to obesity that can be very effective in helping a person loose
excess body fat and keep it off. The biggest thing that this article is missing is what is the best
way to prevent becoming obese to improve our overall health.

Figure 2: Before and after gastric surgery.

The best place for us to start our fight against obesity is with creating better diet and
exercise programs for our youth. To explore this idea I chose an article that was is an evaluation
of several different case studies that have been conducted called Interventions to prevent
obesity in children and adolescents: a systematic literature review for my forth source. I used
similar methods of finding this article as I did the previous one but rather than searching
Obesity Treatment, I search Obesity Prevention. This article was published in January of
2006 in the International Journal of Obesity and can be found on the 30th page of the journal
and it was a collaboration of C.E. Flodmark, C. Marcus and M. Britton. The authors purpose in
this article is to show that by reviewing different studies that have been done on the topic of
obesity prevention in youth, we are not becoming any more proficient at eliminating this
problem. The intended audience is the parents of obese and overweight youth and everyone

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within the health care system. This article is an evaluations of various studies that have been
conduct through out the world.

The authors focus on when each study was conducted to evaluate the trends that
appear as time goes by. The authors were able to come to the conclusion that obesity in
children and adolescents has continued to rise despite the interventions that have been put into
place through various agencies. I agree with the main argument made by the authors in this
article, that the current obesity preventions that we have in place are not as useful as they need
to be. From this article I learned that although a case study from a long time ago may have
yielded positive results, it may not be the case in later years. This article adds value to my topic
by showing that the current measures that we are taking to fight childhood obesity are
ineffective and must be changed. Something that this article does not address is what changes
need to be made to aid in the fight against obesity.
In order for us to make changes that are need to aid in the prevention of obesity, we
need to first look at programs that are showing positive results. This is why I chose to use The
Prevention and Treatment of Obesity as my fifth source. I chose this article because I wanted to
study what treatments have been proven to effectively treat obesity and what has been proven
to be the best approach to prevent this condition. This article was written by Wirth A., Wabitsch
M. and Hauner H. and was published on line at aerzteblatt-international.de in July of 2014. I

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found this article by searching Effective obesity preventions, on Pubmed.com. The authors
purpose is to find out which obesity treatments have been more effective than others.
The intended audience that the author is trying to reach is people in the position of advising
people that are obese or may become obese. The authors present the results of different
techniques that are used to aid on both the prevention and treatment of obesity. The author
compares the out comes that individuals have had as a result of these treatments that are
mentioned in the article.

The authors show that the most effective weight reduction programs must include
exercise, diet, and behavior therapy. This article also gives more detail about how simple
changes to lifestyle have a much higher chance of success rather than dramatic changes
because of a persons ability to maintain these simple steps. In order to prevent individuals from
becoming obese in the first place the authors insert that the best way to accomplish this is by
avoiding high portions of fats, sugars, and other energy-dense foods. The German Society of
Nutritional Medicine also has evidence showing that the Mediterranean diet is effective in the
prevention of overweight and obesity. I agree that the best way to make changes to a persons
lifestyle is by make changes to many aspects of their life such as diet, exercise, and mindset to
yield the best results. Before reading this article I was unaware that group sessions is a more
effective form of dietary therapy rather than individual sessions with a nutritionist.

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This article has added a lot of value to my topic because it goes into vast detail about almost
every form of weight loss and weight reduction. It shows how well these interventions work on
their own and also how effective they are when they are used together.
Conclusion:
After reviewing these sources I have been able to come to the conclusion that the blame
of a persons weight rest solely on the individual. The only instance that a persons weight is
dependent on an outside source is when it comes to children. With childhood obesity rising at a
rapid rate, we have to focus on the parents. As children our diet consists of what ever our
parents are feeding us. Parents are also responsible for the amount of exercise their children
are getting. This is something that I have learned about myself while doing this research. My
children dont really have an option when it comes to what food our family purchases when we
go to the grocery store. Since I am the person that handles most of the cooking in our home, I
usually decide what we eat based on what I am in the mood for. I now realize how great of an
impact, good or bad, this will have on my children health and food choices in the future.
While discussing the obesity crisis, we mostly focus on the food that we consume. I
believe that we need to begin to incorporate our exercise into the conversation as well. When
most people think about exercise, they might think of lifting weights or running on a treadmill at
a gym but there are a lot of forms of exercise that can be easily implemented into our daily lives
that can make huge improvements to our health. Because the main factors that contribute to our
weight are decisions that are made by the individual, it is safe to conclude that the responsibility
is the individuals. My wife and I went out to dinner with some friends and someone brought up
the fact that they were a smoker. This prompted another member of our party to begin to ridicule
him because of the dangers that are associated with tobacco smoke. I think that the public
ridicule of tobacco smokers is something that is fairly common and socially expectable. At the
same table sat my wifes cousin, who weighs over 300 pounds and is morbidly obese, who was

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eating a cheese burger. As I sat there listening to the person laying into the smoker, it made me
wonder how long it would be until the public shaming of an obese person will be just as socially
expectable. I think that the day will come when someone will see an obese person eating
something unhealthily, and reprimand that person with it being totally normal.

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Work Cited:
Casino, Khier. 350-Pound Woman Says She Is Obese Because She Doesnt Get Enough Of
Taxpayer Money Oposingviews.com 27 September, 2014. Web.

Flodmark C-E, Marcus C, Britton M. Interventions to prevent obesity in children and

adolescents: a systematic literature review. International Journal of Obesity, January
2006. Journal.Page 30.

Lombrozo, Tania. Is obesity a disease? NPR.com July, 2014. Web.

Thrne A, Lnnqvist F, Apleman J, Hellers G, Arner P. A pilot study of long-term effects of a

novel obesity treatment: omentectomy in connection with adjustable gastric banding.
International Journal of Obesity Volume 26, Number 2 February 2002. Journal. Pages
193-199.

Wirth A, Wabitsch M, Hauner H. The Prevention and Treatment of Obesity. aerzteblattinternational.de, July, 2014. Web.