Theresa Sullivan
Charles Mitchell
English Comp 101
17 November 2012
Is Obesity a Government Issue?
The United States of America is facing an obesity epidemic. 33% of adults and 17% of children are obese. (CDC) Obesity is a major risk factor for chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and cancer. It costs our health care system nearly $150 billion a year. (Intelligence Squared debates 2012) Some say it is the government’s responsibility to help Americans lower these statistics. Others say that the government intervenes too much and living healthier lives is a matter of individual rights and personal accountability. A person is considered obese when their body has an abnormal accumulation of body fat, usually 20% or more over an individual’s ideal body weight. (About Obesity) "Underweight", "normal", "overweight", and "obese" are all labels for ranges of weight. Obese and overweight describe ranges of weight that are greater than what is considered healthy for a given height. This measurement is called a persons “body mass index” or what is typically referred to as BMI. The debate on who is responsible to trim this obesity epidemic is one that may never be determined. There are a few different contributing factors that are thought to cause obesity including but not limited to genetic factors, behavioral factors and environmental factors. Studies indicate that certain genetic characteristics may increase an individual’s susceptibility to excess body weight. However, the rapid rise in the rates of overweight and obesity in the general population in recent years cannot be attributed solely to genetic characteristics. The genetic characteristics of the human population have not changed in the last three decades, but obesity has tripled among school-aged children during that time (CDC 2010...