Table of Contents
How does culture play a role in obesity?
Acculturation (changes of original cultural patterns of one or more groups when they come into continuous contact with one another) can affect obesity by encouraging the abandonment of traditional beliefs and behaviors that minimize the risk of overweight and the adoption of beliefs and behaviors that increase the risk …
Why is America known for obesity?
Today, about 65\% of adults and 15\% of children and adolescents in the US are overweight or obese. The physiological mechanism causing the increase in obesity is no mystery: Americans eat more calories than they burn, and the excess energy is stored as fat.
How does the media influence obesity perception?
Research has shown how visuals accompanying news videos on obesity often feature unflattering portrayals of isolated body parts or obese individuals partaking in unhealthy behaviors. These visuals can in turn contribute to stigma and negative perceptions of obese individuals.
How culture affects childhood obesity?
“While consumption of traditional food with family may lower the risk of obesity in some children (e.g., Asians), it may increase the risk of obesity in other children (e.g., African-Americans).” As mentioned earlier, the promotion of a processed food culture may be a contributing factor to childhood obesity.
What is clinical obesity?
A person has traditionally been considered to be obese if they are more than 20\% over their ideal weight. Obesity has been more precisely defined by the National Institutes of Health (the NIH) as a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 30 and above. (A BMI of 30 is about 30 pounds overweight.)
Who is responsible for obesity in America?
A nationwide US survey reveals who is perceived as responsible for the rise in obesity. Eighty percent said individuals were primarily to blame obesity. Fifty-nine percent ascribed primary blame to parents. Manufacturers, grocers, restaurants, government, and farmers received less blame.
Social factors could involve stress that could be financial or a stress from trauma, lack of sleep, marriage problems, and lack of education regarding health or types of food choices. Physical determinants could include a natural environment, lack of physical activity, transportation or worksite settings.
What cultural factors contribute to obesity?
The reasons for racial/ethnic variation in obesity are complex and may include differences in cultural beliefs and practices, level of acculturation, ethnicity-based differences in body image, and perceptions of media, sleep, and physical activity.
What culture is most affected by obesity?
For example, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health (OMH) report that African-American women have the highest rates of being overweight or obese, compared with other racial or ethnic groups in the US.
Why is obesity such an important topic?
Obesity is serious because it is associated with poorer mental health outcomes and reduced quality of life. Obesity is also associated with the leading causes of death in the United States and worldwide, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer.
Why is obesity on the rise in the United States?
There has been a slow increase in the number of people who care considered to be obese in the United States and this is due to poor choices in foods and less physical activity, influenced by culture changes and lifestyles.
How do cultural factors play a role in obesity?
Cultural factors play a role in why some groups of people are more likely to become obese during their lifetime. To understand how cultural factors play a role in obesity one has to understand that a culture is a set of rules, learned by sharing experiences, of a certain group of people.
What is the history of obesity?
Obesity as a chronic disease with well-defined pathologic consequences is less than a century old. The scarcity of food throughout most of history had led to connotations that being fat was good, and that corpulence and increased “flesh” were desirable as reflected in the arts, literature, and medical opinion of the times.
What are the health risks associated with obesity?
Adults with obesity often have multiple-organ system complications from the condition and, as a result, are more at risk for heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and multiple types of cancers (2). The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the United States was $147 billion in 2008 (3).