The Virginia Times
Richmond Edition: Issue #1
Obesity: America's Future
By: Apurv Shah
Obesity is a medical condition of having too much body fat. This happens due to eating more calories than you burn and lack of exercise, other reason include gender, genetics, and age.
Figure 1 shows an obese women at the age of 50 weighing 300lb.
Figure 2 shows an obese boy at the age of 13 weighing 200lb
People of all ages can be obese. Being obese means that you have a BMI of 30 or above. People from all parts of the world can be obese but the U.S. is #1 in obesity.
If Americans continue their rate of eating, more than 50% of Americans will be obese by 2030 and all 50 states will
have an obesity rate over 44% which will result in more diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, and other diseases. As of 2008 more than 1/3 of adults are obese. 30% of the entire U.S. is obese. This increase in rates just means more diseases. The cost of the treatment and prevention of them will be high and most Americans are not in the financial state to pay them.
Social and Financial states do play a role in people being obese. the statistics show that more women are obese than men and that those women have mostly low income with jobs requiring less skill than others. More than 50% is still average or normal weight in America though, as well as some people suffering with below average weight which can also cause diseases.
Figure 3 shows an
underweight girl
weighing about
100lb being 20
years old.
.