Obesity:
Government or Personal Responsibility?
As of 2012, there are 33,000 McDonald’s restaurants in the world (How many are there). Because of evidence that obesity is a serious health problem facing children today, school officials and food manufactures want to provide children more nutritious food. Obesity has become a global epidemic. Some states have tax on soda and some are considering this. Unless obesity is shown as a matter of personal responsibility, we should not blame fast-food restaurants for our weight problems; instead, government should figure out some ways to decrease obesity rates.
However, people think that the only way for a person to get healthier would be for them to take initiative to live a healthier life style on their own without help from the government. Freese states, “people blame someone else for their own weight problems in particular fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s” (47). By this Freese is trying to say that people are responsible for what they eat, not restaurants. According to Findlay, parents should help kids make healthy choices and they should think more about walking and bike trails with the kids after school instead of blaming fast-food restaurants (33).
According Martosko, Obesity causes 300,000 American deaths per year (25). Obesity could cause many problems in your life and could cause a person to develop social problems, including poor self-esteem. For example, “obesity raises the risk of numerous diseases, from type 2 diabetes to endometrical cancer” (Begley). Also, Obesity can be a side effect of certain disorders and conditions:
Cushing’s syndrome (excessive release of the hormone cortisol), hypothyroidism (condition caused by an underactive thyroid gland), neurologic disturbances (damage the structure in the brain that regulates appetite) and consumption of drugs (steroids or antidepressants). (DeWitt and Frey 17)
Therefore, the treatment of obesity depends primarily on how overweight a person is on her or his overall health (18). Besides the two basic surgeries; Lap- Band and the gastric bypass you can also perform at least one hour of intense physical activity every day.
According to Centers for disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization said the number of overweight children has doubled and the number of overweight adolescents has tripled since 1980. The first lady Michelle Obama is spearheading a campaign called “Let’s Move”. The objective in Michelle Obama’s campaign is “to solve the challenge of childhood obesity within a generation so that children born today will reach adulthood at a healthy weight” (Reeves). By all means, the point of this campaign is to prevent the next generation to be obese and to have a healthy weight. According to Chilang, “scientists have found strong evidence that people who are overweight as kids and teens are likely to remain overweight or become obese in adulthood” (52). Furthermore, the child nutrition reauthorization act was passed by the House Education and Labor Committee on July 15. “If the child nutrition reauthorization act is passed will call for more nutrition education in schools and also force all food sold in schools to meet federal nutrition standards” (Reeves). If this act is passed the schools will have a more nutritious menu.
School is one reason why there are a high number of obese kids. “Childhood obesity rates have tripled in the 30 years since the introduction of the Happy Meal” (Mar). Kid’s meals must meet basic nutritional standards in order for restaurant to use toy give away. Across the country, school and health officials are trying different approaches to curb teen obesity. Indeed, “a few school districts have begun the removal of high calorie soft drinks and high fat fast foods from school vending machines and cafeterias” (Lemov). Also, Lemov says that several states encourage schools to limit vending machines selections. This would benefit the students with a healthy weight.