Obesity refers to a state in which an individual has accumulated excess fats in his or her body tissues to the extent that it might impose adverse health effects to him or her. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention use the body mass index (BMI) to determine a snapshot view of obesity in America. The BMI uses a sliding scale of height and weight to estimate whether an individual may be obese or not. This method isn’t completely accurate because it does not adequately assess individual body fat percentages but it is the most expedient and cost effective means of determining potential obesity. A BMI of between 25 and 29.9 is considered as obesity. From the outside, obesity would initially appear to be a personal issue, however, if
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Individuals suffering from obesity in most cases are always discriminated by the rest of the people that they associate with in their daily lives, this is because many people do not take time or do not completely understand the reason some people may suffer from obesity. While it is true in some cases that obesity is caused by just overeating and a lack of exercise there are also several metabolic disease and conditions that lead to obesity due to their bodies inability to regulate hormones in the body correctly. Since there is no way to distinguish between those obese individuals who have made personal life decisions and those who are effected by disease they all inevitably get lumped into the same category. In many instances, some people take advantage of these situations to mock them while referring to their huge sizes or deformed body figures (Wang, et al, 2014). Because of this kind of mockery some of the obese individuals may feel isolated and this, in turn, can lower their self-esteem making them end up with low achievement in whatever they do. These people are often subject to many different stereotypes such as: lazy, bad workers, or undisciplined. These stereotypes are not only widespread by our society but they are also felt by the community of people who are obese and with most stereotypes have a negative effect upon those individuals who are …show more content…
What’s even more interesting aside from the economic correlation between income and obesity is the correlation between education and obesity. In regards to education 33% of adults who don’t graduate high school are obese and only 21.5% of college graduates are obese. These rates of obesity push on to their children where 30.4% of children whose parents didn’t graduate high school are obese and only 9.5% of children whose parents are college graduates are obese (The State of Obesity, 2011). Many would argue that the rise in obesity in the lower income segment of the population is due in part to low priced but poor nutrition foods available such as fast food or processed food at the grocery store and a conflict theorist may even assert that this is done on purpose by the ruling class to keep lower classes locked down. It’s not a certainty that the fast/junk food industries are the direct cause in obesity throughout the country but they are the most common scapegoat. Looking at the intersectionality of economic class and race/gender brought forth many conflict results depending on the class/gender and didn’t feel concrete enough to be definitive fact. One interesting factor to mention was that men of color were consistently shown to have gained a higher BMI as their economic class
Individuals suffering from obesity in most cases are always discriminated by the rest of the people that they associate with in their daily lives, this is because many people do not take time or do not completely understand the reason some people may suffer from obesity. While it is true in some cases that obesity is caused by just overeating and a lack of exercise there are also several metabolic disease and conditions that lead to obesity due to their bodies inability to regulate hormones in the body correctly. Since there is no way to distinguish between those obese individuals who have made personal life decisions and those who are effected by disease they all inevitably get lumped into the same category. In many instances, some people take advantage of these situations to mock them while referring to their huge sizes or deformed body figures (Wang, et al, 2014). Because of this kind of mockery some of the obese individuals may feel isolated and this, in turn, can lower their self-esteem making them end up with low achievement in whatever they do. These people are often subject to many different stereotypes such as: lazy, bad workers, or undisciplined. These stereotypes are not only widespread by our society but they are also felt by the community of people who are obese and with most stereotypes have a negative effect upon those individuals who are …show more content…
What’s even more interesting aside from the economic correlation between income and obesity is the correlation between education and obesity. In regards to education 33% of adults who don’t graduate high school are obese and only 21.5% of college graduates are obese. These rates of obesity push on to their children where 30.4% of children whose parents didn’t graduate high school are obese and only 9.5% of children whose parents are college graduates are obese (The State of Obesity, 2011). Many would argue that the rise in obesity in the lower income segment of the population is due in part to low priced but poor nutrition foods available such as fast food or processed food at the grocery store and a conflict theorist may even assert that this is done on purpose by the ruling class to keep lower classes locked down. It’s not a certainty that the fast/junk food industries are the direct cause in obesity throughout the country but they are the most common scapegoat. Looking at the intersectionality of economic class and race/gender brought forth many conflict results depending on the class/gender and didn’t feel concrete enough to be definitive fact. One interesting factor to mention was that men of color were consistently shown to have gained a higher BMI as their economic class