Essay On Should Obesity Be Considered A Disease

A disease is defined as “a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection, poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable environmental factors; illness; sickness; ailment” according to dictionary.com, and the controversy that America is faced with today is whether or not to consider obesity, one of the top health concerns amongst americans today, a disease or not. Obesity does appear to fit some of the criteria that is required to be considered a disease, and there are certain exceptions where individuals are born with genetic disorders that enable them to gain more body fat than is necessary for a healthy body. However, obesity should not be labeled as a disease because not all are overweight because of a disorder or incorrect function occurring in the body like a disease is defined to be.
Obesity has more characteristics that label it as a side effect from other legitimate diseases or complications, rather than a disease on its own. Drastic increases in an individual’s body fat percentage is often caused by unhealthy living patterns, such as poor eating habits and lack of …show more content…
Obesity is not a disease and should not be labeled as a disease by our federal government. Americans need to start taking responsibility for our health, by eating healthier and living more active lifestyles. Rather than overlooking our own flaws in our ways of living, and trying to make excuses by saying that we are born to be overweight and there is nothing that we can do about it, we need to start making changes and taking responsibility and a sense of ownership for our