Our Toxic Environment: Obesity In America

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Our Toxic Environment Why is obesity in America becoming increasingly relevant? The continual expansion of the nation’s waistline has pushed obesity to the top of the list of major health problems in the United States. Few have even explored beyond personal responsibility to the progressive options of federal nutrition assistance, certain restrictive assistance programs, or school health initiatives. Obesity has become an increasingly widespread issue throughout our culture, primarily due to the availability of cheap food lacking any nutritious value, and marketing from big corporations built on the ignorance of the average person. Observing a day in today’s society demonstrates the quick and substantial ignition of obesity. People …show more content…
There is a hormone that sends signals to the brain telling us that we aren’t hungry anymore. This hormone is called leptin. Studies in the past to present time show leptin isn’t doing its job of letting us know when to quit eating. The cause of leptin resistance is the holy grail of obesity research. Insulin, which blocks leptin in the brain, is the diabetic hormone to decrease blood sugar. So it only makes sense that increase in sugar intake leads to an increase in insulin secretion. Have you ever wondered where the sugar goes, though? It goes to the fat for storage. Insulin gets rid of sugar by evolving it into fat; that is its job. Overinsulinization which diabetics or sugar addicts are exposed to instantaneously turn a portion of the calories consumed into fat before the metabolism has a chance to burn it off. Once insulin levels spike and kill off the blood sugar it creates the widely known sugar crash. This makes you feel bad because things that produce energy expenditure or store calories (starvation, hypothyroidism) make you fatigued, similar to the stress response being overloaded with school work to do but deciding to take a nap instead. Things that increase energy expenditure (caffeine, exercise) make you feel good. This is obviously a poor turn of events for diabetics, but we are all internally doing the same thing seeing as how we make too much of our own insulin due to excessive sugar …show more content…
Although it is damaging to our systems, increase sugar intake may result in a sweet addiction, which drives their profits. It’s almost impossible to buy packaged food where there aren’t extra sugars that are just toxic to metabolism levels. The economics and supply of food is a great determining factor in obesity of our people. In reality, our problem with weight will never be solved until we enforce food policy changes. Past public health measures which include Fluoridation of water and immunizations are widely accepted and encouraged today although they initially faced very much antagonism. A massive step the government needs to make is to eradicate junk foods like we have cigarettes in recent years. Stores lace 80% of their products with excess sugar. It is almost out of the consumer’s choice which is why they need to be protected. Sugar, being toxic and abused at the same time, such as nicotine, ethanol, cocaine, meth, morphine, and heroine calls for a similar action. Public health officials consider regulation based off 4 criteria. Unavoidability = check, Toxicity = check, abuse = check, and lastly a negative impact on society =
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