James Ross
12-1-05
Super-sized Camp
A societal issue we have in America is obesity. Obesity increases the chances of having many health issues. It also lowers the self esteem for those that are obese and it also effects those that are around them. Straying away from obesity requires a solution. The soultion that will drastically stop incoming obesity into America would be implementing schools with diet plans and physically active games like the Wii and Xbox Kinect, and to stop the already obese people, we will throw them into super-sized camps.
Obesity is a problem in a America, it "is the excessive accumulation of body fat resulting in a body mass index (BMI) that is significantly above the norm and is associated with increased risk of illness, disability, and death" (Carson-DeWitt). Some of the major health risks that follow obesity are "arthiritis, hernias, heartburn, gum disease, high cholestrol levels, gallstones, high blood pressure, decreased fertility and pregnancy complications, incapacitating shortness of breath, sleep apnea and sleeping disorders, skin disorders from the bacterial breakdown of sweat and cellular material in thick-folds of skin or from increased friction between folds, and emotional and social difficulties" (Carson-DeWitt), and just know that those are just the major ones, there are just as many minor health issues as major ones. 71 million Americans according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control have these health risks, that is one-third of the adult American population, and 300,000 of them die a year because of obesity (Carson-DeWitt). Studies have shown that men who are atleast 40% overweight have a higher chance of dying from cancer than those of average weighted men. Studies also show that like men, women who have cancer are more likely to die by cancer if they weigh more then the average weight. Not only do obese people have health risks, they are more likely to be insecure about themselves (Pi-Sunyer).
Obesity affects one's self esteem drastically. The media shows that for women to fit better into society they must be slim and slender, which is thinner than the average american woman (Yamamiya). For men, they must be muscular and lean to become satisfied because the men advertised by media like Playgirl are muscular and lean (Agliata). Low self esteem causes poorer mental and physical health, worse ecocomic prospects, and higher levels of criminal behavior (Trzesniewski). "Harold is a 12-year-old boy who is obese. His presenting problems of social withdrawal and depressive symptoms appeared to be related primarily to being teased frequently about his overweight status. "Fatso" and "tubby" were the two of the names that he was called. The teasing seemed to worsen his already negative view of his appearance and also decreased his overall self-esteem"(Thompson). Harold is an obese kid, he gets picked on and does not fit in socially because of his obesity and along with that he has high health risks and may be a criminal in society. Obesity not only effects a person's self-esteem, but it effects the people around them.
Obesity is contagious, it does not affect only the person that is obese, it effects others around them also. A new study suggests that the more obese friends you have, the more likely you are to become obese. "We find that having four obese friends doubled people's chance of becoming obese compared to people with no obese friends," says Alison Hill, the study's lead auther and a Harvard researcher (Hellmich). Even if a person's friends and family may not be obese, obese people are everything. Imagine riding a bus, or an airplane somewhere, and you sit down next to a window with an open seat beside you. A person with a butt two times the width of the seats plopped down right next to you and took up half of your seat along with their entire seat. But on top of that, obese people have more trouble maintaining hygiene because they tend to sweat more due to carrying around a little extra weight and not being able to clean every part of their body. (karaokekitty) Would that not affect you and your comfortability at all? Of course there are going to be people who say no, and it would be other fat people.
Some people who disagree that being obese is an issue are obese people themselves. They believe that no matter how fat they get, liposuction is always there. It is true that "while liposuction might make you look better, a number of studies have shown it is unlikely to improve your health (Janiszewski)." Removing all that fat can actually be more unhealthy. Some fats in the body are required to oppose other fats from accumulating fats near the heart, liver, and muscle. When you remove all the fat just like that, your body gets over exhausted when you eat excess foods again and your body has trouble storing that extra fat that you obtain. There's a certain point that fat depots can expand and when that point is reached, the healthy fat cells can no longer protect the heart, liver and muscle. Then the health risks start kicking in (Janiszewski), and for every problem there is a solution.
The solution for keeping the children from getting obese are for schools to give their students more meals through out the time they are at school and also giving them physically active video games to play. The Wii has been proven effective to losing weight. A man name Steve Dembo has been playing Wii Fit, 45 minutes a day for 14 days and has lost 6 and a half pounds, and he did that while eating unheallthy foods. There are hundreds of diet plans out there that do not require excercise and you can still lose weight, now imagine how fit a person can be with the correct diet plan and excercise. Schools will be able to implement these meals and games because the cost will not be high. For the game systems, they do not cost more then 200 per system and games are included with a bundle. If the government buys them in large quantities, gaming companies will most likely give a better deal to compete with the other gaming companies for who the government should buy from. The food cost will stay the same because school foods are cheap in the first place and it is the parents who pay for them. People may disagree and say that eating more is going to cause more obesity and playing games is a factor of people sitting around doing nothing to get fat, but that is not the case here. Eating certain foods at a certain amount will not make you gain weight, especially when you have phyiscally active games rather then sitting around moving your thumbs games going on. These are long term effect from keeping children fromg getting fat. Some may also complain that they cannot afford the 3 meals a day for their child, but there is a more cost friendly solution for the parents.
When implementing the diet plan, schools will have more meals throughout the 7 hours they are in school mondays through fridays. These meals will consist of healthy foods such as oatmeal, fruits, vegetables, turkey, beef, eggs, rice. nuts and fish. These foods are foods that keep the students healthy and have low fat in them. Schools will turn their gym into a gaming center filled with active video games that are similiar to the Xbox Kinect game, Dance Centrtal. Just like schools normally do, they take turns taking their students into the physcial education room, which is the gym. Physical education will be an hour of intense gaming time. They will play the games and get graded on how much calories they burn. After their hour of phyiscal active gaming, they will head out to eat a healthy meal that will help their body recover. The amount of food they get will be measured through how many calories they have worked for, and will be eaten just about every 2 hours. They will have eaten 3 times within their day at school and have in an hour of excercise which will help them maintain a healthy and fit body that will not be obese. If kids become obese, they will be thrown into the super-sized camps.
A solution for all the current and new obese people will be the super-sized camps. The government will set up camps all around the the United States; more camps will be set up in the states that are larger or have large populations, like California and New York, whereas less camps will be set up in less populated states like North and South Dakota. Doing so will help the cost of traveling everyone from far reaches. The cost for the camps will vary from state to state, but the obese people will be the one to do the labor. The government will also round up every person that is obese, if they're only 5 pounds passed their average weight class, then they'll have a week to do so, if not they will be escorted to the camps. If the obese people have children, their children will be taken to the camp also, and be separated from the parent until they can maintain a stable average size. These camps will forcefully change the eating habits of the obese people. The cost is not a cost, it is profit, a win win situation. Everyone in these camps will be working for the government while losing weight, they will make items that are to be sold for profits that will pay for these camps and for the government to spend at their disposal. This would be a fast short term solution that can will help the obese people immediately. The rules for this camp are, become fit and you are free to go. If you try to escape, there will be punishment.
The fat camps that will be implemented will not be an ordinary fat camp. It is one where those that fail to maintain an average weight or below will be forcefully be thrown into. How it is going to happen is every American government employee will be walking door to door and taking every obese person and throwing them into the back of a truck. They will be taken to camps that are meant to hold 20,000 average weighted people, but will have 20,000 obese people. They will be forced to wear these clothings with a logo embedded to each of the bellies of the clothing. These logos will consist of a red circle with a red line through it and a chocolate bar in the middle. The obese people will work inside these camps making clothing that will not fit them, energy drinks, weight lifting machines and yoga balls. These items will be sold for a profit to maintain these camps and for the government to help pay off their debts. The meals inside these will still be healthy foods like the schools, but there will only be enough food to keep them working, nothing extra. For those who try to escape the camp, they will be captured and thrown into solitary, watching food networking channels without a meal for the day.
Obesity in America must be solved or our population will all become obese, and obesity comes with many health risks. The school solution proposed will give everyone a fair opportunity to maintain a healthy body and will help everyone else from being influenced by obese people's bad eating habits and poor exercise choices. The super-sized camps will make the already obese people who have failed to maintain a healthy weight lose weight and become healthy. Obese people have problems losing weight, because they cannot lose the weight themselves, let the government intervene. The government has medicare for those that are in need, so why would they sit around and wait for the obese people's health problems kick in, why not stop it before it happens? If everything goes accordingly Americans will lead more healthy lives for a small price of determination.
Works Cited
Agliata, Daniel, and Stacey Tantleff-Dunn. "The Impact of Media Exposure on Males' Body Image." Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 23.1 (2004): 7-22. Print.
Deckelbaum, Richard J., and Christine L. Williams. "Childhood Obesity: The Health Issue." Obesity 9.11S (2001): 239S-43S. Print.
Dembo, Steve. "Lose Weight with the Wii Fit? The Numbers Don’t Lie. « Teach42." Teach42. 06 Mar. 2008. Web. 01 Dec. 2011.
Han, P. Y., S. B. Duffull, C M J. Kirkpatrick, and B. Green. "Dosing in Obesity: A Simple Solution to a Big Problem." Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics 82.5 (2007): 505-08. Print.
Hellmich, Nanci. "Obesity Is Contagious among Friends, Study Suggests - USATODAY.com." News, Travel, Weather, Entertainment, Sports, Technology, U.S. & World - USATODAY.com. 11 Sept. 2010. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Janiszewski, Peter. "Liposuction Does Not Make You Healthy." OBESITY PANACEA. Blogger, 15 May 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Karaokekitty. "#65 - Hygiene." 101 Reasons I Hate Being Fat! Web. 28 Nov. 2011.
Pi-Sunyer, F. Xavier. "The Obesity Epidemic: Pathophysiology and Consequences of Obesity." Obesity 10 (2002): 97S-104S. Print.
Thompson, J. Kevin. Body Image, Eating Disorder, and Obesity in Youth: Assesment, Prevention, and Treatment. Washington, Dc: American Psychological Association, 2001. Print.
Trzesniewski, Kali H., M. Brent Donnellan, Terrie E. Moffitt, Richard W. Robins, Richie Poulton, and Avshalom Caspi. "Low Self-esteem during Adolescence Predicts Poor Health, Criminal Behavior, and Limited Economic Prospects during Adulthood." Developmental Psychology 42.2 (2006): 381-90. Print.
Yamamiya, Yuko, Thomas F. Cash, Sasan E. Melnyk, Heidi D. Posavac, and Steven S. Posavac. Body Image. Vol. 2. 2005. Print.
http://0-galenet.galegroup.com.skyline.ucdenver.edu/servlet/HWRC/hits?r=d&bucket=all&n=10&m=Obesity&l=d&k=TE&seg=0&c=1&locID=gale&secondary=false&s=2&TE=%22Obesity%22
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