Will Obesity Ever Stop?
Hannah Nguyen
It is very disappointing to say that Richmond, Va is the second most obese city in America. Even with the “obese” label, rates of obesity are still soaring. Obesity is a very serious health epidemic that effects adults and children of both genders and is life-threatening. More than thirty percent of the people in Richmond are obese with another forty-one percent that are overweight. We need to stop consuming more food than we exercise off. Therefore, people not getting enough physical activity, leads to high health care rates.
The main life-threatening symptom of obesity is heart disease. Sixty-one percent of obese people have a chance of getting heart disease. Physical activity is still not being practiced to prevent obesity and more and more people are falling into that trap. The total cost for health care due to obesity is around 147 billion dollars.
The total cost of health care needed for obese adolescents to become “healthier” again is millions of dollars. Yet still, the main cause of death in Richmond and America itself is obesity. The number of obese people has tripled since just one generation ago and will not stop going upward. Obesity has become such a huge problem now that it is even affecting childhood lives.