19 November 2012

Obesity in the United States
According to Morgan Spurlock from the movie Super-Size Me, he says that “America has become the fattest nation in the world.” Obesity has become a major issue in the United States. When you hear the term Obesity, it means having too much body fat (A.D.A.M editorial ,2000). Obesity is not the same as being overweight. A person can be over-weight from extra muscle, bone or water (A.D.A.M editorial, 2000).
There are many causes as to why a person could become obese; the first would be eating more food than your body needs (A.D.A.M editorial, 2000).When your body takes in more calories than it burns, these are stored in the body as fat (A.D.A.M editorial, 2000). America has become lazy; most people rely on cars, or buses to get them places. When most people could walk to work or the grocery store, they chose to drive their car or ride the bus. This leads to another main cause of obesity which is lack of exercise (A.D.A.M editorial, 2000).There are other factors that cause obesity; most people don’t have time to plan out healthy meals, with work and children (A.D.A.M editorial, 2000). Today most people work behind desks, and computers rather than the more active jobs in the past (A.D.A.M editorial, 2000).
With this being said, we as Americans eat out 40% of our meals (Spurlock,2004). Today the average American doesn’t have the time or energy to cook dinner, instead they get fast food. Fast food has become cheap, and easy to get that most families eat out most of the work week (Spurlock, 2004). Fast food restaurants like McDonalds appeal to younger children because of the clown, the happy meal, and most have a play set. Parents feel obligated to take their children there (Spurlock, 2004). The way we eat as children can affect the way we eat as adults (A.D.A.M editorial, 2000). The way we eat over the years becomes a habit. This affects what we eat, when we eat and how much we eat (A.D.A.M editorial, 2000).
In the movie Super-Size Me, Morgan Spurlock ate McDonalds every day, every meal for 30 days. If asked to Super-Size Spurlock had to do so every time (Spurlock, 2004). Starting the process of the McDonalds challenge for 3o days, Spurlock had to go through many tests. Before the challenge, Morgan’s cholesterol was perfect, his body fat was 11%, he was considered in good shape. Spurlock was considered healthy; no shortness of breath, and his blood sugar was low. During the 30 days, he gained 10 pounds in just the first 5 days of the challenge (Spurlock, 2004). Nine days into the McDonalds challenge he woke up feeling depressed (Spurlock, 2004). Depression among obese people is actually quite common. People who are obese develop depression because they experience themselves as in poor health, and are dissatisfied with their appearance (Obesity And Depression May Be Linked, 2008). This shows how much of an affect fast food has on your body.
Children are being raised on processed chicken, boxed meals, and sugary sweets. What ever happened to children eating home cooked meals? Most schools cook lunches from boxes, only 6 out of 36 lunches are homemade (Spurlock, 2004). It used to be that schools served homemade lunches more than they did boxed lunches. Now a days