Assignment #9

In my final paper I plan to address the issue of obesity and its supreme affect on this nation as well its growth throughout the world as a whole. I would like to focus mainly on childhood obesity because it is an issue that has worsened greatly over the past few decades. Because of childhood obesity, individuals are developing severe life-threatening diseases and afflictions that could be otherwise avoided had they not suffered from obesity at such young ages. This disease is lessing this generation's projected life expectancy by five years. Obesity is a problem that is annually impinging more and more lives within an extremely broad range of ages. One of the biggest dangers of obesity is developing diabetes. This is so dangerous because seventy-five percent of diabetic individuals ultimately die of cardiovascular disease – cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death.

So many people, especially in the United States seem to be unaware or dismissive of the damage that obesity is inflicting among the population beyond the aesthetic stigma that society has placed upon it. In children in particular, obesity and even being overweight has a strong impact on their emotional health as well as their physical health. In many cases an overweight or obese child is not fully accepted in his or her community solely because of his or her appearance. This is also common among adults in social and working environments. Because of this exclusion, these individuals are left in isolation to wallow in thoughts of shame and self-disgust. These are the makings of emotional unhealthiness which can, in some cases, trigger additional eating to provide comfort – thus starts the cycle that fosters the increasing levels of obesity.

This topic is important to me because several members of my extended family struggle with problems with being overweight or obese. And though it has been proven that a major portion of obesity cases are caused by genetic means, I am aware that the habits and choices that some of my family members make on a daily basis do nothing but deteriorate any chances they have for good health. Obesity is a threat that is easily and swiftly capturing the lives of the American people, and I feel that it would be a terrible shame for it to spread its demolition to members of my family or any other individual because of his or her lack of knowledge of the dangerous nature of the issue.