Obesity
...far behind holding at the number two spot. Each year in the United States, obesity causes approximately three hundred thousand deaths. In a sense, obesity is similar to the AIDS virus in that the disease does not kill individuals itself, but the illnesses that come along with obesity do kill. For instance, being obese increases an individuals risk of developing high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, gallbladder disease, and cancer of the breast, prostate, and the colon. Obesity not only causes hundreds of thousands of deaths a year but it also costs the government and tax payers about $100 billion dollars. Researchers believe that obesity rates are higher than they have been in years because of environment factors. Factors such as lack of physical activity, high calorie foods, and the low costs of high calorie foods, such as the Dollar Menu at McDonald’s, are why so many individuals are obese.
During the past twenty years, obesity among adults has risen significantly in the United States. The latest data from the National Center for Health Statistics shows 30%, approximately sixty million, of U.S. adults from the age of twenty and older are considered to be obese. However, this increase is not limited to adults; the percentage of young people are overweight has more than tripled since 1980. Among children and teens ages six to nineteen years, 16% (over nine million young people) are considered overweight. Obesity is not only a problem in the U.S., but also in Japan and Western Europe. In the U.S., Japan, and Western Europe, there are approximately three hundred million people who are suffering from obesity. Researchers blame these high obesity numbers on things such as television, video games, high fatty foods, computers, and the lack of physical activity in and out of school. A child is not considered to be obese until their weight is 10%...
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