Robert Chaplin

English 111-B

Mrs. Innes

10 April 2000

Obesity in America

Although it has nothing to do with international boundaries or

population size, it is the people of America who are expanding at the

waistline. In the United States thirty three percent of the adult population are

obese. One is considered obese if one is more then twenty percent over ideal

body weight.

The main cause of obesity in humans is the calorie. A calorie is a unit

used to measure the energy value of food and the energy used by the body to

maintain normal functions. When the calories from food intake equal the

calories of energy the body uses, weight remains constant. When more

calories are eaten than the body needs, the body stores the additional calories

as fat, which causes subsequent weight gain. Consuming about thirty five

hundred calories more than what the body needs results in a weight gain of

one pound of fat.

Bill Phillips, a leading authority in health and nutrition states, “The best

way to not be obese is a healthy diet and lifestyle. . Your diet will greatly

impact on the way you look, the way you approach things and the amount you

will be able to do physically” (Phillips 135).

A good balanced diet consists of the five major food groups. The five

major food groups are: Bread and Cereal, Fruit, Vegetables, Meat and Meat

Alternatives, and the Milk group. The Bread and Cereal groups are

recommended for six to seven servings per day. The Fruit group is

recommended for two or three servings per day. The Vegetable group is

recommended for four servings a day. Meat and Meat Alternatives are

recommended one serving per day. The Milk group for a young, or still

growing person is of much greater importance then when the person has

stopped growing due to the amount of calcium one needs when he or she is

growing. The reason for this is while the body is growing, your body needs

fat and dairy products for energy and nutrients (Phillips 258).

Some people who are obese cannot help it. The Hypothalamus, a part

of the brain, important because it regulates the internal activities of the body.

Although the Hypothalamus constitutes less than one percent of the total

volume of the brain, it has an important influence on many of the body’s

functions. These influences are: sexual behavior, emotions, hormone

production, and the autonomic nervous system. The Hypothalamus plays an

important role in regulating feeding behavior too. George Forbes a Hormonal

expert states, “Experts have performed experiments on rats that has

demonstrated if the middle of the Hypothalamus is damaged, the rat over eats

and becomes obese; damage the lower part of the Hypothalamus and the rat

will starve itself and die” (Forbes 89). The Hypothalamus also plays an

important role on the Cardiovascular system along with the rest of the

Autonomic Nervous System. The effect is vital for the coordination of mind

and body for it is responsible for the physical changes required before

exercise. Many other problems can come from being overweight like;

especially high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes (Forbes 90).

Diets, the most common and conservative treatment for obesity,

utilizes a nutritionally balanced, low calorie diet. Bill Phillips, a leading

Health and Nutrionist Expert states;

Overall advice to somebody who is battling weight

and has been doing so for a long time. Simply

reduce your dinner plate once with a sensible

portion and then be done. Then, everyday find a

way to walk for at least fifteen minutes as a starting

point to increased exercise. (Zulak 48).

Most health care professionals and commercial weight-loss programs

recommend diets consisting of twelve-hundred to fifteen-hundred calories per

day. The proportions usually are sixty percent carbohydrate, thirty percent fat,

and ten percent protein. Joseph Suttie, an expert on Human Nutrition states,

“Without further treatment, however, patients usually regain one-third of the

weight in the following year” (Suttie 45).

In some states obesity is becoming such a problem that movie theaters

and subways are having to increase seat size and door width to accommodate

people who are obese.

Through all of my years of training and diet I have found that diet is the

most important factor because you are what you eat.

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