Why is America Obese?

By: Nick Izzo

Ello folks. Today I’m going to discuss with you a few reasons as to why America is becoming obese. There are genetic contributions, environmental, and behavioral as well. But I will only be going over genetic and environmental as behavioral is pretty self explanatory (you eat what you want to eat).

There are three theories as to why genetics effect obesity. These theories predict genetics account to about 25% of the risk to becoming obese. First of the three theories is the Thrifty Gene Theory. This theory talks about how some people are simply just destined to have more efficient fat storage. This more efficient fat storage would allow these individuals with thrifty genes to be able to survive when food is scarce. The second of the three is the Set-Point Theory. The bases of this theory is that every individual has a genetically programmed control system which tells them just how much fat they should be storing. One issue though with the set-point is that the theory cannot distinguish between dieting and starvation. When someone starts dieting the body can react as if starvation or famine has set in and it will change the metabolic rate in your body to conserve calories, therefore dieting is negatively impacted. The only way to get around this is a constant increase in physical activity. The third theory is the Leptin Theory. Fat cells, more scientifically known as adipose cells, secrete leptin which is a hormone that targets the hypothalamus, a part of your brain, to regulate your intake of food and metabolism. It has been found in mice studies that mice which have low leptin levels eat more often, have more insulin and also have low thyroid and metabolism levels. All these theories are just possible explanations to why genetics may be part of the cause of obesity but hold strong, supporting evidence so they are what are more highly regarded in the study of why obesity is increasing.

Another cause to the increase in obesity is the environments we grow up in. If one of your parents is obese there is a 50% chance the children will be. That percentage increases by 30% if both parents are obese. A family’s economical stance is a big part of the environmental factor. Kids growing up in in families with low poverty to income ratios have the highest rates of obesity. This is mainly due to the price of food in places of poverty. Healthy food costs more in these areas than the fast food places in these places. Also, there are about three times as many supermarkets in wealthy neighborhoods than there are in poor neighborhoods. It truly is the food industry that screws people over. They serve a great amount of low quality products that are high in fat and sugar content to areas with less purchasing power. Food security also factors into the environmental cause of obesity. When someone knows they will always have food to eat they are less likely to binge on food. Whereas people that don’t have food security take advantage of the times they can eat and binge food high in fat and sugar. A very misconstrued part of the environmental factor is parents’ thoughts on abduction. People feel, for some reason, that it is unsafe for their children to be outside unaccompanied. This thought is totally blown out of proportion though. 800,000 children are reported missing every single year. 204,000 of these are non-family member abductions usually meaning people accidentally take the wrong kid. 115 of these are the ones we see on the news. That means about .014% of reported missing children are truly abducted by a predator. Lastly in the environmental column is more than nine out of every 10 schools no longer require or even provide PE. This is detrimental to children’s health because it is very important at those young ages to develop good habits for the future.

There are many factors that contribute to obesity in America. Between your genetics and the environment you grow up in your risk of obesity can alter. It’s very important to watch how much you eat as well as keeping a consistent workout schedule.

References:

“MSU- KIN 173 – Foundations of Kinesiology – Spring 2017”. Education.msu.edu. N.p., 2017. Web. 15 Feb. 2017.