Modern American Obesity Issues, Essay Example

Abstract

An evolving dichotomy is increasingly evident in American culture, in that average weight and fitness levels are poor, while media emphasis more pervasively both advertises programs for weight control and endorses fitness through virtually every arena of popular access. Information on caloric and fat counts is mandated legally in supermarkets and restaurants, and masses of reports on the dangers of obesity are released continually. Moreover, cultural ideals and icons reflect health and slimness as the ideal condition. Obesity, meanwhile, grows as a fact of American life. Only through abandoning the perpetual ‘diet’ mentality, which applies to the attractions of fitness regiments, can this trend be reversed.  A deep acceptance of personal change at a fundamental level is necessary for this to happen, as it can only occur on an individual level.

Modern Obesity as Personal Problem

It can be stated with some safety that no single American is unacquainted with friends and/or family dealing with obesity issues, whether or not that American is obese as well. In an era when fitness ‘infomercials’ and consumer advocacy on nutritional information are both running at unprecedented levels, there appears to be an exponential increase in weight problems. “Obesity has reached an epidemic level with virtually no new approaches for combating it” (Ditmier, 2006, p.2).

Over the period of several days, I observed the activities of visitors to a large shopping mall, deliberately choosing the lunch hours and with a specific eye on food choices I could note from a non-participating stance. My observations during these hours will follow to support the impressions I received and conclusions I drew.

Most evident of all the patterns in regard to overweight people and the choices I observed in their food selections was no appreciable pattern at all. So deeply personal are weight issues that each individual brings a complex frame of reference based upon their own history to these choices, whether ostensibly random or otherwise. For example, extremely overweight people I watched were by no means waiting at the food court kiosks for service to begin. I noted more than a few who scanned the offerings and chose to move on, ordering no food at all. Those moderately overweight ran a greater spectrum; some combined fat-heavy items with more healthy choices, some opted only for typically fatty and unhealthy foods, and some took extra care in ordering only nutritionally sound items.

That the personal component in this issue is prevalent cannot be ignored. It appeared to me that dietary choices and any reasoning behind them were made, in a sense, by everybody, regardless of obesity levels. Weight and nutrition have been so ingrained in the American consciousness as facts of living, the mentalities accompany every individual. This has the effect, ironically, of diluting the import of these choices for the obese, in that it is merely yet another consideration affecting everyone, and therefore not as pivotal to anyone in particular.

The Lost ‘Average’

Another observation I made was in the disturbing omnipresence of the overweight. “Food producers, advertising agencies, local and national governments, as well as the general public, have all played a part in the current obesity crisis” (Miller, 2007, p.11). Other reasons are cited, including poor self-image, ease of modern labor, ethnocentric expectations, etc., but the fact remains that what was once termed ‘average’ build or weight has taken on new parameters. Today, particularly among middle-aged people, ‘stout’ is average.

This is perhaps the most insidious element of modern American obesity. While most people readily acknowledge the dangers and unpleasant issues of being substantially overweight, a state of being ‘hefty’, or what is seen as ‘reasonably overweight’, has become so widespread that it has lost its stigma as an undesirable condition. “….Throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s, age-adjusted obesity prevalence rates continued to increase for both men and women” (Lee, 2006, p.9). The entire paradigm has in a sense shifted. When everyone is overweight, no one is.

My observations were in striking contrast to a rise as omnipresent as that of obesity: the promotion of fitness and sound diet through all aspects of the media. Since the 1970’s, talk shows, magazine articles, bestselling books, commercials for products and plans, and promotions for diets and gym memberships or home equipment have inundated the nation. This saturation, it must be again stressed, appears to be directly correlated by the increase in the problem itself. While diet plans seized upon one year are utterly abandoned the next, the fact remains that, in the midst of this weight-related onslaught, a great deal of information has been made readily available to the public. In a very real sense, everyone has access to all the tools they require to combat weight issues. Not only is the fat content of an item legally proscribed as listed on that item, we moreover are educated as to the levels of fat we may safely ingest, and with regard to age, gender, and any other variable. All the machinery for reducing nationwide obesity is in place, yet it continues to flourish, and at dangerous levels.

The ‘Personal’ Element

“Excessive body weight is a lifestyle problem which knows no borders” (Aldana, 2005, p.207). While this sentence sums up a vast dilemma succinctly, it fails to hit the mark due to the choice of the word, ‘lifestyle’. That is too light a concept for so profoundly and individually complex a circumstance, for only in exhaustively re-thinking all life choices made and adhered to can a person successfully alter so fundamental a component of being as eating and health.

This notion has gained in popularity in recent years, yet is rarely embraced on any substantive level. For one thing, most of us grew up believing that weight loss could be achieved through a simple and temporary change in eating habits. For another, the potency of routine and daily living habits is deceptively great; cycles established do not change easily, and never without strenuous effort. As with fad dieting, the option to adjust ‘lifestyle’ has become a panacea in the American psyche, when its deeper implications must be confronted.

Conclusion

As weight factors into every aspect of a person’s life, problems with it must be attacked on a similarly all-encompassing scale. For the obese person to truly change for the better, a virtual overhauling of all the inner workings of his life, both emotional and physical, must be undergone. Approached in this manner, weight loss ironically becomes a sustainable but ancillary benefit to a healthier and more stable whole.

References

Aldana, S., PhD  The Culprit and The Cure: Why Lifestyle is The Culprit Behind America’s Poor Health (2005). Mapleton, UT: Maple Mountain Press.

Ditmier, L.  New Developments in Obesity Research  (2006). New York, NY: Nova Science Publishers.

Lee, H.  Obesity Among California Adults: Racial and Ethnic Issues  (2006). San Francisco, CA Public Policy Institute.

Miller, M.  The Obesity Epidemic  (2007). Pleasantville, NY: World Almanac Library.