Causes of Obesity

Essay by ChickenFeedHigh School, 11th gradeA+, January 2005

download word file, 5 pages 4.8 1 reviews

Americans' obesity has rapidly increased because of advanced technology and Americans' lack of self control. Obesity has been designated as a global epidemic by the World Health Organization since 1998 and is one of the most common chronic illnesses for both adults and children (WHO). The American Obesity Association states that currently 64.5% of adult Americans and 45.6% of American children are categorized as overweight or obese, which means they have too much body fat (AOA). What causes this increasingly detrimental problem?

First of all, the workplace has become increasingly automated. Back in the olden times, people had to do manual labor and actually exercise most of the day. Today, machines do the hard work so one does not have to do manual labor. Labor saving technology like washing machines which save one from the pain of scrubbing clothes against a washboard and computers which can send emails instantly to another person on the other side of the country have caused people to stop exercising and participate in leisure activities much more often.

However, the biggest cause of labor saving technology in the workplace is computers (North Carolina A&T State University). Computers run machines which make cars, cook food, cut wood, and thousands of other tasks that used to require vigorous exercise. So without the computers, the machines could not run or perform any tasks effectively. Nearly all businesses rely on computers, and without their precious computers, their businesses would deteriorate in no time. Although obesity has grown because of the increasingly automated workplace, it is not the only cause.

A second cause of Americans' obesity comes from the home. Household chores are also assisted by labor-saving machinery. For example, before gas fireplaces were invented, a person had to chop down a tree by hand and chop that tree into...