Obesity reaches epidemic proportions

Its amazing that a decade ago, the Department of Health and Human Services predicted that obesity by 2010 would be 15% lower! This is surely an epidemic! In my opinion, i dont think anything has been done to actually lower obesity! There are too many marketing schemes that involve weight loss that people get fed up with. The gov't has to take more of an action towards helping its citizens instead of putting up a Mcdonalds on every corner!
Everywhere you go, no matter where you are in the States or in Canada, a fast food joint is always nearby! No wonder obesity is a problem!

wow i agree!!! i cant believe they actually thought it would go down by 15% however, i wouldn't blame the government instead id blame the parents. as a kid if your parents buy you mc donalds all the time you will tend to go there as u get older why? because this routine is set in your brain. if you parents rather then take you to mcdonalds cook food at home like rice, or something healthy and explain why your not going to mcdonalds for dinner that initiative to eat healthy will be stuck in your system. so it doesn't really matter how many fast food restaurants there are! its the ways that the consumers are taught about eating right! also the schools should be involved in this as well i remember in my old school instead of having pizza lunch everyday they would put healthy items for hot lunch day like mr sub its little things like this that will help today's society to become less obese and maybe get to that 15% expectation someday.

yeah i totally agree on the parents thing. But kids also have free will at some point. I got my bank card at a young age and so do others. And they have the free will of choosing whether or not to eat till they are big.
Plus its not just kids that are obese, many parents are big too! Exercise needs to be a bigger part of everyones life!

Dieting and high fat foods are both HUGE businesses. The "epidemic" won't end until people quit throwing money into these businesses. They feed off each other (pardon the pun ) The almighty dollar fuels these things and I don't think the ceo of McDonalds is going to willingly close his international megachain so americans can lose some weight.

I never imagined the rate of obesity to lower, I mean just look at the lineups at fast food restaurants daily. There are some families who have their breakfast,lunch, and even dinner at Mcdonalds on a daily basis, I mean why not cook your own rice? and have a healthy diet, its healthier and better for you. People these days have to try and stop the mass fast food intake. We should try to step up and change our eating habits into healthier ones, to decrease obesity in both adults and children. Also, I understand why some people would choose to get McDonalds instead of Subway ,maybe because Mcdonalds is cheaper compared to Subway, or because some families can not afford to buy their groceries and make their own food, or because people just don't have the time to cook so they choose an unhealthy alternative. As a result, they end up choosing the fast food route for convenience, which eventually leads to obesity and other health problems. Another reason simply could be that fattier foods taste better than the healthier ones. Consequently, once someones lifestyle is fixed, its pretty hard to change it.

Therefore, when the Department of Health and Human Services predicted that obesity by 2010 would be 15% lower, I did not think it was possible. However, the government is trying to help as they add food regulations which force companies to show how much calories and fat is in their product. Even though nutrition facts are on products, many people ignore it.

Ultimatly, within a reasonable age range of 16 and up, I think the problem of obesity falls under the responsibility of the individual. A 15 year old kid or one younger will not have as much freedom with regards to where he/she eats out - even if they do. One who is this age and suffering from obesity likely either has it in his/her genes or has suffered from the decisions of his/her parents. I agree with Josh in saying that a parent who buys a lot of fastfood for their child will influence that child to continue to buy it as they get older.
Once we reach the age of 16, give or take a year, I think we have the full responsibilty to make choices which will prevent an obese life style. There will always be media advertising how good their "Jr. Chicken" tastes; one has to make the decision to not comply with these commercials, and rather go to the gym and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Its simple yet a decent chunk of society fails to recognize the health concerns with the food they buy; they rather just consider the cheap price and great taste which is enough for them.

Loteyk yeah you may have gotten bank cards at a young age but if u have disapline thats all you need to control your health like its not like you will die if you dont eat a burger so the parents should start or continue to basically teach there children about health maintaining a good lifestyle like i said it all begins at home.

Josh has a great point that it does start with the parents, but if you really wanted to change your diet at home, you would have to change the diet of the whole family. Cause when your eating a salad and you dad is eating a steak at dinner, it's just way harder to resist such temptations. I believe a healthy lifestyle starts with what you have access to: money, food wise. At home if everyone is eating healthy, you have no other choice but to eat healthy.

exactly right simrit !! and on top of that there are many different things that encourage people to lose wait and to eat healthy tv shows school cafeteria menus healthy choices in the vending machines, i know its up to the individual but if you think about it by eating unhealthy your shooting yourself in the foot heal that injury and eat healthy!

Firstly.... I LOVE HOW YOU SPELT "weight" as WAIT. LOLLL

Secondly, yeah i guess the cafeteria is TRYING to be more healthier, but then you see there is Chicken Burgers, Fries, Ham Burgers at the caf as well... These really bad foods will NEVER EVER be completely abandoned by human kind, because of one simple reason... IT TASTES SO GOOD. IT shows how we are drived by our taste and not our mind

WOW haha yeah i dont really edit what i type anyways yeah i know what you mean like it does taste good but there are other things that taste good or even better and are waay more healthyer then the junk we see on every corner we just gotta encourage it more and allow it to enter out top food list haha i know some fast food places sell salads and stuff like that but like why get it from there when u can make your own customized one with the stuff you have a home take a chance and be creative go home and make yourself a healthy mean rather then going out to eat!

But the thing is people don;t want to pay that extra few bucks and get the healthy stuff when they could prob get more for their buck at a local McDonalds across the street! Its just how mankind is, cheap ! LOL

haha yeahh i know what u mean but mcdonalds looks cheap yeah but when it all ads up why pay less to die faster when u can pay more and live longer? thats a seriouse question to ask people when there about to buy an unhealthy item from a fast food restarunt or any unhealthy place like once in a while is ok but like if your going more then 2 times a week or something like that then you really gotta think about what your doing to your body

They find out when they sit down at a McDonalds restaurant and their pants button pops out and nails some kid in the face... LOL .

I don't even believe that once a while is good at all to eat that bad stuff! cause what they put in their is like tiny heart attacks building up till it becomes on huge one.

HAHA WOW

and look at it this way the body can heal itself so once in a while wont hurt AS BAD key word there but yeah i agree man it is bad to eat even once in a while but like i said before its not as bad as going occasionally BLEH the world just seems to be gettin worse and worse as a new mcdonalds opens haha

I swear when i went to US for the first time.... There more Mcdonals then streets itself... One time i counted how many there were on one street. 12.... 12 Mconalds on one street!

That just goes to show the nature of American society. One can't blame them for being such an obese nation. Its unfortunate really.

How can we not blame them for being an obese nation?

If they were to just try to eat healthier maybe lower the manufacturing adn production of foods that is in fastr food resteraunts, they could cut down the obesity.
I believe it is their fault for being such an obeese nation, and if they really wanted to cut down on obesity they would.

canada and the us are the major places for obesity among children and adults, but your guys are right look what we have here, mcd's kfc, wendy's all these places use such bad products that affect our health. but if you go to places like australia or even places in europe, you would occaosinally see a mcd's but everything is usually little coffee shops, which sell fresh products and healthier options. the gov't is wrong how can obesity be lowered when they are still having many more macdonalds being built, plus if you walk into a macdonalds thier is such a big line, but if you walk into a extreme pita thier nobody thier. canada and the usa will contuine to be a obese nation unless people start acting to produce a better life style for themself.

Obesity is a major problem in north america and I feel like people are just complaining about it and not doing much to stop it from happening. I don't agree with some of the things said in this article. I don't think people need medication to cure their obesity. People need to start eating healthier and exercising. People want a quick fix to their problems. They don't want to put any work in to get the results they want. It talks about in the article that 95% of people who lose weight eventually gain it back. I understand that some people have a hard time losing weight but I think that our society has become lazy and not willing to work hard to become healthy. Yes the fast food places shouldn't be selling such unhealthy food but we are the ones who make the decision about what goes into our body. Crash diets and magic weight loss pills may help you lose a bit of weight but it won't last. People need to get up off the couch and get active.

most people see food as something that makes them happy, that's why the continue to eat unhealthy. i agree with Alicia that we cant just blame it all on the fast food chains even though they do play a big part in the the obese situation. but many people view excersice as a challenge, many people are lazy but then their the people who don't believe that they can change and start living a healthier life style. people need to start understanding that excersice dosent mean go to the gym lifet weights and run for an hour. they need to start slow like walking or cutting the grass or shoveling the snow this can help people stay healthy. im not saying eating a planned out meal is what people need to do but even if you eat good things every meal your helping yourself a lot. then you see all these diets on TV, their all scams, they just want your money. people who are suffering form being obese need motivation. if somebody motivated them everyday i believe they can change their attitude amongst a living a healthier lifestyle. the minimum amount of exercise a person needs a day is 45 minutes a day, now that not to hard to do in 24 hr day. another problem that should be fixed is the gym costs, i understand that they are a business but really people out their are not willing to spend 300-400 dollars to join a gym. lower the costs and probably more people would join. with more people joining = more people getting active. their are many more factors than just these fast food places that continue to make north America a obese society.

Individuals who have managed to become largely overweight have no one to blame but themselves. In agreement with posts before mine, it is not up to the fast food chains to worry about consumers eating their products too often and becoming overweight, as long as they provide a wide variety of food choices that include some healthy alternatives. If the treatment of individuals with diseases becomes too much of a burden for the government to accommodate, then it should be up to them to limit the amount of advertisements that the fast food chains release to the public. I feel that the prediction of obesity rates lowering (in the first post of this thread) is highly unrealistic, as this is completely dependent on the personal choice of each individual to lead a more healthy lifestyle. Proving this prediction wrong, it can be clearly seen that the only way the problem of obesity is going to be dealt with, is if individuals are more strongly educated at an early age regarding leading a healthy lifestyle.

The most vital part in this change is parents monitoring the food intake of their children from a very very young age. If parents more strongly limit the amount of unhealthy food that their children eat, they will be less likely to carry on with bad eating habits later in their lives.

i agree with Anthony, most of our behaviour come from our parents and or family. and if a parent does not watch their kids their going to contuine to be the way they are. but as you watch these shows like dr phil or the doctors, most parents think that its healthy to let thier child eat to grow but most were uneducated on how much to give their children. but then you have to view the different possibilities. some individuals come from a family of overweight people where genetics may be a factor, especially if healthy eating and physical activity are not a priority in the family. you see the worlds largest baby, and what was the reason for his condition look at what his mom gave him to eat everyday, the kid eat more than i do. but i believe that our parents are a factor to obesity, you also gotta blame the invention of video games. thier are kids out their who play it all day, people are proud that they have reach like 5 prestige in call of duty. people are spending more time on TV playing a lot of video games, these are activities that don't burn calories. thier are many things to blame for this but the major thing like anthony said is to blame yourself. the saying "your are what you eat" its true. if people continue to believe that they should eat whatever and don't believe in excersice than their only ruining their life.

Paolo Posteraro wrote:

i agree with Anthony, most of our behaviour come from our parents and or family. and if a parent does not watch their kids their going to contuine to be the way they are. but as you watch these shows like dr phil or the doctors, most parents think that its healthy to let thier child eat to grow but most were uneducated on how much to give their children.

Exactly Paolo. It is vital that parents monitor these activities in a child's life. If parents are not able to muster the self-control to put restrictions on their children then they clearly aren't responsible enough to be caring for a child. If a child is taught to be healthy especially until they are old enough to start school, I think this will greatly reduce the obesity rate. The people around school, etc, who are overweight, have most likely been overweight since they were young. It is not common to be in school and the next time you see someone, they are 100 pounds heavier, however it IS common to meet someone in elementary who is overweight and watch them go through each year not making a change in their lives. Now, many years later, they still have the same problems they did as a child.

and you can also tie this topic into depression many heavier people are depressed. why well people call them fat or giant. and what is one of the thing the they do is eat again because they don't know better and their condition continues to worsen because its not being controlled. they are just doing this to themselves. watching again all these talk shows, most people people say that they eat cuz it makes them happy. then you get some people who are happy being the heaviest person on the world. not being rude or anything she is becoming a bad role model for the rest of the youth of today. but then you see improvement like watching the biggest loser, you can see how happy they are when they get told you just lost 40 pounds. we need more motivation like that.