Adolescent Obesity is a Two-Way Street
Within America, the obesity rate among adults and children has almost tripled between 1976 and 2012. The drastic increase in caloric intake and decrease of physical activity creates an extensive energy gap which is widely accepted as a leading cause of obesity. Nutritionally, calories are within all foods, and are converted into energy. When there is an excess of energy, the body stores the energy as fat within the subcutaneous tissue, which leads to a gain of weight. Likewise, when a person expends more calories than they are taking in there is a shortage of available calories, and the body uses its fat storage to make ends meet. Thus, the body loses weight. As the intake and expenditure become inversely …show more content…
Within their commentary, James O. Hill Ph.D, John C. Peters Ph.D, and Holly R. Wyatt Ph.D, warn ‘It has been argued that the energy gap fails to consider that energy stores continue to increase with weight gain so that there is a cumulative energy gap that builds over time between obese and non-obese individuals so that small changes in eating and physical activity would be insufficient to reverse the obesity pandemic.’ (Hill, Peters, Wyatt 109) Although the gap may seem to be too large to reverse, new generations supply new bodies that have the potential to not struggle with weight. Future ancestors also tend to learn from the past, and create monumental changes. In addition to having new bodies and learning from the past, taking no action to the obesity pandemic would normalize the problem and extreme cases would no longer be a rarity. In the specific example of doing severe body modification, such as weight loss surgery to morbidly obese children whose body is still developing, would become a regularity. If action can be taken to prevent not only weight loss surgery, but drug therapy for life threatening obese children, then a plan should be put into effect. Thus, making adolescents accustomed to regular physical activity through incorporating it into a regular school day will inturn theoretically create a domino effect of generations to come who are physically active through
Within America, the obesity rate among adults and children has almost tripled between 1976 and 2012. The drastic increase in caloric intake and decrease of physical activity creates an extensive energy gap which is widely accepted as a leading cause of obesity. Nutritionally, calories are within all foods, and are converted into energy. When there is an excess of energy, the body stores the energy as fat within the subcutaneous tissue, which leads to a gain of weight. Likewise, when a person expends more calories than they are taking in there is a shortage of available calories, and the body uses its fat storage to make ends meet. Thus, the body loses weight. As the intake and expenditure become inversely …show more content…
Within their commentary, James O. Hill Ph.D, John C. Peters Ph.D, and Holly R. Wyatt Ph.D, warn ‘It has been argued that the energy gap fails to consider that energy stores continue to increase with weight gain so that there is a cumulative energy gap that builds over time between obese and non-obese individuals so that small changes in eating and physical activity would be insufficient to reverse the obesity pandemic.’ (Hill, Peters, Wyatt 109) Although the gap may seem to be too large to reverse, new generations supply new bodies that have the potential to not struggle with weight. Future ancestors also tend to learn from the past, and create monumental changes. In addition to having new bodies and learning from the past, taking no action to the obesity pandemic would normalize the problem and extreme cases would no longer be a rarity. In the specific example of doing severe body modification, such as weight loss surgery to morbidly obese children whose body is still developing, would become a regularity. If action can be taken to prevent not only weight loss surgery, but drug therapy for life threatening obese children, then a plan should be put into effect. Thus, making adolescents accustomed to regular physical activity through incorporating it into a regular school day will inturn theoretically create a domino effect of generations to come who are physically active through