The Politics of Obesity Essay -- Overweight Health Eating Habits Essay

The Politics of ObesityA March, 2005 headline on CNN.com brought deeply troubling news to the American public Report Obesity will reverse life expectancy gains. For the past 200 years, life expectancy steadily increase thanks to medical advances such as the discovery of antibiotics and vaccines, but this upward trend is no longer guaranteed. Childhood fleshiness has already reduced the intermediate life expectancy between four and nine months. Todays generation will stick shorter and less healthy lives than their parents for the first time in new history, warned S. Jay Olshansky, the University of Illinois researcher and author of the study (1). In 2004, the US Center for Disease Control found that at least 66% of adults were overweight or orotunddouble the percentage in 1980and that more than 1/6 th of kids ages 2-19 were overweight. Type II diabetes, usually caused by an unhealthy lifestyle rather than genetics, has change magnitude as a side effect of obesity and heart dise ase is also on the rise. In short, obesity is a national epidemic.Accusatory fingers have been flying, each pointing to different possible causes for our tubby younger generation and their similarly overweight parents. Some blame video games that keep kids inside and sedentary and few see the shift toward desk jobs as the reason. Others claim that our car culture based on cheap gas is the culprit. Still others fault the fat-laden fast forage, soda, and junk food that Americans consume by the ton. To be sure, these cultural phenomena are interconnected and no one cause can be blamed entirely, but one comminuted acronym stands demurely behind this last category of diet-related causes HFCS. High fructose corn syrup, the favorite food additive of Coke, ... ...ne wants to experience the pain and frustration of obesity, and surely we appetency to protect our children from starting out life unhealthy and overweight. As consumers but more importantly as citizens, we must be informed ab out the HFCS and obesity for our childrens sake, and US agricultural and nutritional policy must reflect our concerns. Sources Citedhttp//www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/diet.fitness/03/16/obesity.longevity.ap/ http//www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/18/FDGS24VKMH1.DTL Michael Pollan. The (Agri)Cultural Contradictions of Obesity. The New York generation Magazine. Oct 12, 2003. http//www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A8003-2003Mar10?language=printer http//www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/79/4/537 http//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15234599&dopt=Abstract