Fast Food and Obesity
Fast Food and Obesity:
Where is the line crossed between individual responsibility and placing blame?
Abstract
Context: In the United States, the increase in the rate of obesity has the potential to reverse the long-term efforts to increase the life expectancy of Americans. There are many factors that influence obesity including growing food portions, changing lifestyles, and the existence of food deserts throughout our country. There is a question whether obesity should be seen as individual responsibility or an effect of negative environmental forces.
Methods: This article assesses various environmental, social, cultural, and behavioral factors that can be attributed to obesity. Also, it examines potential ways to tackle this epidemic and what American’s need to do in order to end this deathly wave that is spreading contagiously throughout our culture.
Findings: (1) In the United States, the increase in food portions is directly related to the increase rate of obesity. The added calories and fat people are consuming lead to weight gain, obesity, and other heath conditions. (2) American’s new fast-paced lifestyle has shifted where meals are being eaten. This is negatively affecting the younger generation to whom our country is depending upon to continue to be productive members of society. (3) The medical model, for the causes of obesity, emphasizes the individual. It stresses that each individual has the opportunity to make responsible choices. (4) The public health model, for the causes of obesity, focuses on environmental factors. These factors lead the population to make unhealthy choices.
Conclusion: Individuals are independent agents who are responsible for making healthy decisions and are expected to behave in a way that promotes their health. Individuals should only be held accountable for unhealthy decision-making when they have adequate resources to do so.
Over the last 50 years, the most prominent causes of death in the
Where is the line crossed between individual responsibility and placing blame?
Abstract
Context: In the United States, the increase in the rate of obesity has the potential to reverse the long-term efforts to increase the life expectancy of Americans. There are many factors that influence obesity including growing food portions, changing lifestyles, and the existence of food deserts throughout our country. There is a question whether obesity should be seen as individual responsibility or an effect of negative environmental forces.
Methods: This article assesses various environmental, social, cultural, and behavioral factors that can be attributed to obesity. Also, it examines potential ways to tackle this epidemic and what American’s need to do in order to end this deathly wave that is spreading contagiously throughout our culture.
Findings: (1) In the United States, the increase in food portions is directly related to the increase rate of obesity. The added calories and fat people are consuming lead to weight gain, obesity, and other heath conditions. (2) American’s new fast-paced lifestyle has shifted where meals are being eaten. This is negatively affecting the younger generation to whom our country is depending upon to continue to be productive members of society. (3) The medical model, for the causes of obesity, emphasizes the individual. It stresses that each individual has the opportunity to make responsible choices. (4) The public health model, for the causes of obesity, focuses on environmental factors. These factors lead the population to make unhealthy choices.
Conclusion: Individuals are independent agents who are responsible for making healthy decisions and are expected to behave in a way that promotes their health. Individuals should only be held accountable for unhealthy decision-making when they have adequate resources to do so.
Over the last 50 years, the most prominent causes of death in the
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