Learning About Obesity Professor Ramos Blog

Learning About Obesity I vividly remember roaming the aisles of Costco with my mom when I was about eight or nine years old. I grabbed pizza rolls from the freezer and asked my mom if we could get them and she said sternly, â€Å"Honey I am not getting you those, they are so unhealthy. Do you see that overweight lady over there? Do you want to look like her when you’re older? I didn’t think so. Put them back†. I threw a fit because I didn’t seem to care at all that pizza rolls were unhealthy, they just tasted good. Realizing now, my mom was just trying to start healthy habits for me at a young age and I am happy that she did. I no longer have to worry about obesity and the diseases and struggles that may come along with it. Obesity is growing into more of a problem today than people realize. Unhealthy lifestyles are becoming so prevalent, and they are growing harder and harder to break. Obesity is a disease that is caused by unhealthy lifestyles or genetics and can be prevented and treated in various ways. According to Stanford Health Care, there are many ways that obesity can be prevented, and the primary way is by starting with the prevention in infants. For example, breastfeeding infants for a longer period of time can make them less likely to become obese when they grow old (Obesity Prevention par. 4). As the time of breastfeeding increases, the percentage of likeliness to become overweight as an adult marginally decreases. This is interesting because as a society, breastfeeding seems to be something that parents would like to stop sooner rather than later. Obesity seen in adolescents occurs primarily due to thoughtless eating habits and lack of exercise. These habits could have been passed down from their parents, who could also be providing them with unhealthy food. Genetics can also be a factor of obesity within the youth. More thought and effort would be needed by adolescents who are born with these genes to become a healthier weight than someone without the genetics that can g enerate obesity. The prevention of obesity within adults can be aided by putting more attention to improving eating habits and expanding physical ability in their everyday lives. There are many different factors that play a part in helping prevent obesity throughout a lifetime. â€Å"Obesity is a treatable disease that is a worldwide health concern associated with having an excess amount of body fat. It is caused by genetic and environmental factors and can be difficult to control through dieting alone. Obesity is diagnosed by a healthcare provider and is classified as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater† (What is Obesity? par. 8). Obesity is an epidemic and rates have gone up quite a lot in adults, even the extremes of obesity rates have gone up a little over 7 percent. According to â€Å"What is Obesity?†, having a BMI in the range of 25-29.9 is the beginning of a health concern (What is Obesity? par. 3). At this point, this is deemed as being overweight and changes should be made in one’s lifestyle such as dieting, physical activity, and producing better eating habits. Obesity is reached when a person’s BMI reaches an amount of 30.0-39.9. When one is considered obese, it is then classified as a disease and may als o lead to other problems in a person’s health. After the general obesity level when a certain BMI is reached, a more critical level can be reached, termed severe obesity. Severe obesity is someone who passes 100 pounds or over within their respective healthy body weight. A person with a BMI over 40 has an even higher chance of health difficulties in their lives and should seek help from a professional healthcare provider. There are many simple and complex causes of obesity in this day and age, but one of these factors include psychological stress. This stress could come from everyday life, along with different problems and concerns that people may encounter. Dealing with these issues can make a person successful on dealing with obesity in other ways (What is Obesity? par. 9). In some studies, sleep deprivation has shown correlation between the amount of sleep people get and how the lack of sleep has affected a person and their weight. Moreover, there is a higher chance of being overweight if one sleeps less than people who sleep a lot (Why People Become Overweight.) The media could be seen as a potential effect on a person’s thoughts and inner conscience. Ads by companies can persuade someone to partake in eating more unhealthy. These ads are being shown everywhere causing unhealthy food to be perceived as the best option by the most famous food chains on the planet, on advertisements, such as television and billboards. A more complex factor on obesity influence is the metabolic factor which is when â€Å"levels of ghrelin, a peptide hormone known to regulate appetite, and other peptides in the stomach, play a role in triggering hunger and giving you a feeling of fullness after eating.†(Obesity Causes.) There are ways that a person’s metabolism can be regulated and fixed to fit the specific person and their lifestyle but people need to just push to take that extra step. After remembering the story about my childhood and how the simplest things like wanting to eat some pizza rolls could affect me, it made it easier to be self aware about the things that should go into my stomach. Also making the physical activities that occur easier to take part in because of the knowledge that has been gained throughout a majority of my life, including being aware of what BMI is and what and how it affects the human body across everyone’s lives and the step on how to change at least one of the things that could help in bettering life and creating a body that is ideal to work towards. Annotated Bibliography Harvard Health Publishing. â€Å"Why People Become Overweight.† Harvard Health, Harvard Medical School, June 2009, health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/why-people-become-overweight. This article talks about why people become overweight and what the factors are. There are also mentionings about the environmental causes of obesity within people. I am approaching it because I want to explain why people become obese and what factors are involved in the process of being obese. This article has a disclaimer on their reliability and comes from an â€Å".edu† Harvard Medical School source. â€Å"Obesity Causes.† Stanford Health Care (SHC) Stanford Medical Center, stanfordhealthcare.org/medical-conditions/healthy-living/obesity/prevention.html. This article will explain how to prevent obesity in many different ways. Along with explaining how obesity will be prevented, it will discuss in detail how to prevent it within certain age groups. I am talking about this article because it goes along with my theme of informing the reader on helpful actions that could be taken if needed. This information comes from Stanford’s Health Care program. â€Å"Obesity Prevention.† Stanford Health Care (SHC) Stanford Medical Center, stanfordhealthcare.org/medical-conditions/healthy-living/obesity/prevention.html. This article will explain how to prevent obesity in many different ways. Along with explaining how obesity will be prevented, it will discuss in detail how to prevent it within certain age groups. I am talking about this article because it goes along with my theme of informing the reader on helpful actions that could be taken if needed. This information comes from Stanford’s Health Care program. â€Å"What Is Obesity?† Obesity Action Coalition, obesityaction.org/get-educated/understanding-your-weight-and-health/what-is-obesity/. This article covers what obesity is, and what it means in society. Covers what the causes of obesity can be and what obesity is not. I’m approaching this article because I want to inform what obesity is and how obesity is affecting people’s lives every day. There are many different links that are affiliated with this website with other reliable sources that could have a connection to this article. Birch, L L, and A K Ventura. â€Å"Preventing Childhood Obesity: What Works?† Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 13 Apr. 2009, nature.com/articles/ijo200922. This article is going to cover the specifics of childhood obesity. Starting with talking about when the rates of being overweight starts to go up a noticeable amount in North America regarding children. I am approaching this article to be able to inform the reader about where obesity starts and could be prevented easier, as children. This source is on Google Scholar so this is a scholarly source making it reliable.