Obesity in America Essay

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UNV 104
April 9, 2013
Alli Holladay

Obesity in America

There are many people from different countries who are not provided with the nutrition needed to stay healthy. America, however, is considered to have an abundance of food, but not necessarily nutritional when making the choices to be healthy. Because of this surplus of food, Americans tend to over eat more than their daily intake which eventually will lead to being overweight or obese and may also cause other health complications. Obesity in America is one of the leading causes of disease, but it is reversible with exercise and a healthy diet. Obesity is a disease itself and is the cause of other serious diseases. It will cause complications to the heart, the core of our body function (Eckel, n.d.). Eating more than what can be burned, depending on age, gender and physical activity, will lead to heart disease or heart failure because with the excess weight, the heart will pump blood harder to reach the added fatty tissue, making the heart weaker. Another serious disease that will complicate one’s health is Type 2 diabetes (T2D). T2D can develop when there is not enough insulin produced or the body disregards the insulin. Obesity reduces the insulin’s capability to control blood sugar (The Endocrine Society, 2013). There is still hope! Though an individual is obese now, does not mean they cannot change the outcome of this unhealthy fate. Exercising prevents disease and staying, or becoming, an unhealthy weight. Exercise burns off body fat that the body would store in individuals that intake more nutrients than needed. Also, as we relate exercise to disease prevention, The regular practice of moderate intensity physical exercise (training) shows capacity to reduce body weight, improve insulin sensitivity, increase circulating levels of high density lipoprotein (molecules made of proteins and fat) , decrease triglyceride levels (type of fat found in blood) and normalize blood pressure, (Nunes, Teixeira, & Reis, 2011). There is something everyone must know, food is not the enemy. To fight obesity people must understand proper nutrition and serving sizes. Americans are often exposed to high calorie dense food, and take in more than the individual can burn off, which leads to excess body fat. To display an appropriate serving size for an individual’s suitable calorie consumption is to measure the portion size of the food by using measuring cups or a scale; however, this is not the ideal way to determine meal size in most occasions, like going out to eat at a restaurant and dinner parties. Keep in mind it is not only serving sizes to look after, healthier food choices also play an important role for our
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