Obesity In The 19th Century Essay

Improved Essays
Obesity, although a hot topic now, is only a few decades old. Prior to the 18th century, food was scarce. Being overweight was believed to be a thing only the rich could have, and it was considered as a healthy figure for the human body. In the 18th Century, many technological advances came about to help the human civilization, but they instead created an abundance of readily available food. Technology continued to grow well into the 19th Century, and many individuals decreased the amount of physical activity they participated in. These factors are what account for the increased obesity rate throughout the years. It wasn’t until the 19th Century that being fat was considered unattractive and unhealthy. The health issues associated with being obese were not noticed until the 20th Century. As more people fall into the category of obesity, it is important to notice how obesity ties in with the concept of sociology. Sociology deals …show more content…
H4: Individuals who are obese are more likely to have other health conditions that cause obesity than those who are not obese.

H5: Individuals who are obese are more likely to be poorer than those who are not obese.

This paper contributes to society in explaining how obesity occurs. Knowing the causes of obesity can help prevent the disease from happening. It is important to know about obesity so that more awareness can be raised about how serious of a problem it has become. With the knowledge of obesity, people can prevent it from happening to them personally and to the people that they know. The secondary sources of this paper will discuss how obesity started, the prevention of the disease and different aspects related to the disease itself. However, not all aspects will be addressed because time and resources are

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Erik Orr Mr. Farias English Composition 1301 – 047 04 Aug 2014 Title “Americas War on the Overweight” by Kate Dailey and Abbey Ellin gives readers a look at the hardships and judgment’s that come with being obese in todays America. The majority of obese Americans did not choose to be obese; factors such as illness, genetics, and psychological problems play a determining role. The simple assumption that everyone who is obese is lazy, over eats, or is a slob, is far from the truth. There are numerous reasons as to why one ends up being extremely overweight, and many more reasons why they remain that way forever.…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the articles, “What You Eat Is Your Business" and “Don’t Blame the Eater” authors Radley Balko and David Zinczenko present strong but differing view points regarding the growing concern related to obesity. While also bringing forth opinions on whether American policymakers are over involved or under involved. Each does this by bringing forth opinions supported by facts, personal experience and the idea that there is a lack of awareness of what is considered to be unhealthy. Despite their varying opinions it can be agreed that there is still not enough being done, by the American people or by American policymakers, to try and reduce the increasingly high numbers of people impacted by obesity and improper nutrition. For most, this topic is…

    • 993 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Obesity is often elucidated as excessive body fat. Millions of Americans suffer from obesity at a young age or in adulthood. However, obesity is treatable and can be self-diagnosed, whether it lasts for multiple years or be lifelong. The article “Should Obesity Be a ‘Disease?”, by Crystal L. Hoyt and Jeni L. Burnette, is about the “multi-metabolic and hormonal disease” obesity. Hoyt’s and Burnette’s main points within the article are directed towards agreeing with the topic that obesity should indeed be labeled as a disease.…

    • 988 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Obesity In England Essay

    • 589 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Obesity is a medical condition which caused by accumulated excess body fat that stored in certain parts of the body in a harmful manner. (9 ) Majority of the medical practitioners consider obesity as a life-long disease, just like high blood pressure or diabetes; therefore, it should be covered under insurance plans for treatment. Others argue obesity should not consider as disease but as a risk factor for different health issues. They also argue, if Obesity considered as disease, then many countries should be categorized as “disease / sick states”. (13) As per the World Heart Federation 2010 report, globally, almost 3 million deaths a year are contributed by obesity and overweight (7).…

    • 589 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It has been revealed that obesity do not only pose threat on a person’s health social life but also on the economic aspect. In 2008, the total estimated cost of obesity for both children and adult in Australia including the productivity cost, health system cost and carers was $58.2 billion (Australia Government Preventative Health Taskforce, 2009). There are numerous factors that are associated with the development of childhood obesity and socio-economic status is one of them. Sometimes one lives can be influenced by his or her socio-economic status and studies have revealed that. It has been revealed that children who are born into a lower socio-economic background with less education are more likely to be at risk in developing obesity (Moraeus et al 2012).…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to Wright Mills (Wright Mills, 2000), the sociological imagination is the skill of perceiving the issues in our world not only as problems concerning individuals of our society but also affecting populations in their entirety. Obesity is a problem which affects the entire world and is increasing in occurrence because of a number of sociological factors (Gilbert, Selikow, & Walker, 2010). We can view it as being affected by environmental, social and psychological factors (Gilbert, Selikow, & Walker, 2010). We can analyse the influence of society on the incidences of obesity if we focus on some factors such as; the technological advancement, the effect that poverty has on people and on societies and the effect of child abuse.…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The obesity epidemic in the United States is now three decades old, continuing to worsen over the years. Many Americans are fearful of being categorized as obese because of the risk of other developing health conditions that come along with it, including: heart disease, cancer, diabetes or sleep apnea, just to name a few. Obesity is looked at as a simplistic issue because being larger than others automatically means that one is lazy right? This is the attitude taken towards this subject. Many people do not understand the complexity of obesity, but medical professionals and other researchers are starting to take a look into why the number of people being diagnosed as obese is increasing.…

    • 2108 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Some people believe that the only way to reduce the fat through the meal control or exercise; others argue that people can only become slender by utilizing the medical surgery or medical treatment, and still others believe that people should figure out what are the factors, either environmental or behavioral that affect people become obese. In the field of natural science, the main objective is to find the rules behind all the natural phenomena; therefore, I want to apply the knowledge from this class to look at this topic- the relationship between obesity, overweight and the…

    • 1544 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Obesity In America Essay

    • 1746 Words
    • 7 Pages

    There’s a strange epidemic going around now in time that has never occurred before. The United States is known to be admired by other countries for different aspects. However, one negative perspective on America is that there is a widespread obesity epidemic occurring. Not only are heavier people becoming unhealthy but skinnier people are too. In the 70’s, most cases when people were heavier was because of genetics.…

    • 1746 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Obesity In America Essay

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages

    People in poverty are more susceptible to obesity due to expensive food options, unavailable free time, and the area that they live in. Obesity isn’t just caused by not eating healthy. In America, over one-third of adults are obese (Miller 191). “Those with low wages had increased BMI as well as increased chance of being obese” (Kim and…

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Obesity In America Essay

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This paper addresses the causes, risk factors, and preventative measures associated with obesity in the United States among children to adulthood. The different onsets of obesity and the reasons why citizens of the United States of America suffer from this epidemic are laid out. Preventative measures ranging from natural physical activity, nutrition, pharmaceutical, to surgical methods are expressed. The government’s role and responsibility in the lingering and increases of this epidemic are also addressed. A major public health problem in the U.S. is obesity.…

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Obesity is classified by the United States government as a disease and needs to be treated as so. Questions have been asked about obesity and its effects for the last few years as the obesity population had risen. The government has put few restrictions in place to help prevent obesity, even though it has been the third leading cause of death in America. Obesity can be caused by overeating and lack of exercise, but it has astounding after-effects. Due to obesity, Americans can acquire other diseases, unnecessary medical bills can cause the government to spend millions on treatments, and fast food companies advertise non nutritious foods that cause Americans to spend insane amounts of money.…

    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Despite the researches that have been done by scientist in numerous cases, we have seen their findings being ignored on the effect of public health on people. However, the effects of obesity on people have been left on those that are obese and they are perceived to be the cause of their failure . In addition, they are said to have adopted a lifestyle which is unhealthier. I examine evidence to address these assumptions and discuss their public health implications.…

    • 1398 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The documentary “Fat’s New Frontier” certainly opened my eyes, and basically put into perspective that there is an epidemic on a global level. This seems alarming to me because the greater part of these countries where encountering starvation in the relatively recent past. There is no doubt about it; we require an alteration in society and the economic system. It is foreseen by 2030, that there will be one billion individuals whom are obese. This is perhaps the most shocking statistic which gives a perspective concerning how serious this matter is becoming.…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are many things that are socially constructed in today’s society nation-wide because of the influence of the Western ideas. One of that being the idea of how an individual’s weight can define whether they are “fat” or “overweight”. Both of these correlating with the idea of not being healthy and that they may be obese. “Fat” and “overweight” is a scientific way to describe the mass weight of the individual, but has been commonly used negatively that now these terms are seen more as a stigmatized label. But the shift in the meaning of the terms has been birthed from the health institutions who have been trusted to give medical judgement that would determine whether we are “healthy” or “unhealthy” based on what they see as “normal”.…

    • 1909 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics