Where Does the Fat Start?

Although obesity is a public health epidemic world-wide, for the purpose of this paperI will be referring to only the United States.

Overweight and obesity, two words which have become synonyms in today's society.

Obese and overweight are two separate, but entangled terms. Overweight people havelarge masses of bone, muscle, and/or water. Obese people have large masses of fat.

(NHLBI) According to the CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, surveysshow that among adults aged 20-74 years the prevalence of obesity increased from 15.0%(in the 1976-1980 survey) to 32.9% (in the 2003-2004 survey). (CDC) In Finding FaultFor the Fat, an essay by Daniel Akst, Dick Daynard's position is: tort lawyers will pursuecompanies like McDonald's…not for making fattening food, but for alleged deceptivepractices. (Akst 281) I have never seen a sign in front of any fast food restaurant whichreads, "Eat here, it's healthy". So, who is to blame for American's obesity problem? I wouldlike to delve into the other causes and effects of our society's obesity epidemic.

There are many issues which can cause obesity and being overweight. A person's familyhistory plays a detrimental role. Genes also may affect the amount of fat you store in your bodyand where on your body you carry the extra fat. Studies of identical twins who have been raisedWorthley 2apart show that genes have a strong influence on one's weight. Your chances of being obese oroverweight are greater if one or both of your parents are obese or overweight. (DCI) While thisseems to be the norm, it is not always the case. There are instances when you can change yourbody structure through the environment in which you live. Ultimately the individual person hasthe responsibility of exercising and making sure he/she eats not only the right sources of food,but normal amounts of servings; thereby breaking...