Baby Fat Research Paper

When my younger brother, Jesse, hit middle school, his physical appearance changed drastically. Always a little chubby, we always attributed it to the fact that he took after our 6’5” and 250lb grandfather, whom we affectionately called “Big Jesse,” to differentiate between the two. However, a harmless layer of “baby fat” quickly turned to a drastic weight gain. My once happy, goofy brother abruptly become very uncomfortable in his own skin. This situation bewildered me, as we ate almost all of the same meals, and both maintained active lifestyles. Worried for his health and knowing the connection between weight gain and diabetes, our mother took Jesse to our pediatrician where he went through a series of tests. The doctor referred him to a …show more content…
Though he is the product of his height eventually catching up with his weight, others throughout our country won’t be as lucky. By the year 2020, “83 percent of men and 72 percent of women will be overweight or obese” in the United States (Northwestern Women’s Health Research Institute). Many will attribute this statistic to a country full of lazy people who love junk food, facts about health and obesity as a disease and addiction beg to differ. Obesity, according to the Council on Science and Public Health report, meets the criteria of a disease. It prevents individuals from functioning at a normal level, and drastically decreases life expectancy. It can cause heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). In 2009, obesity was the third leading cause of death, and medical spending on obesity closes in on $147 billion a year (Obesity.org). Throughout all of these obvious negativities regarding obesity, it might feel as though there is an obvious answer to prevent and diminish these astronomical numbers: just eat and exercise more. However, this solution is far too oversimplified and ignores the many factors that contribute to this …show more content…
These ideas, though they contribute to the overall epidemic, create a sense of simplicity to a very complex issue. A lack of access to healthy food, lack of a role model for healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle, income and genetics all play a role in the disease. We live in a society that while such a large percentage of people are overweight and obese, still creates a sense of worthlessness to people who fit these criteria. Instead of finding true solutions to the issue, such as making healthy food more accessible and more affordable, and taking the disease seriously as an addiction, people choose to mock, criticize and berate people who suffer from the disease, with little to no compassion for what they deal with every day. Although action in many categories needs to be taken in order to even make a dent in this issue, empathy and consideration for another human being’s background aren’t a bad place to