A Hidden America Research Paper

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Obesity in America is a growing concern for the nation. Obesity rates are rising and something has to be done in order to curb the trend towards a heavier and unhealthier America. The change won’t be over night, but with perseverance, it can be done. It’s affecting everyone but does it affect some groups more than others? Let’s first look at what actually has to happen for people to become obese. A person’s body has to have a certain amount of energy to go through a normal day. There are two ways of getting this energy. One, your intake calories in the form of a food or drink and the second is the use of stored body fat. If food intake is too high, the human body stores it as fat to be used at a later time. However, if a person doesn’t take …show more content…
This is a problem because eating at such places leads to people consuming too much food in large portion sizes, low nutritional value, and sugary foods. Percentages show that people who regularly eat fast food have higher body mass indexes than those who don’t. A study done in Michigan shows that regular consumers of fast food, at least twice a week, were 60 to 80 percent more likely to suffer from obesity. (Anderson) In the video “A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains,” it shows how addicting unhealthy things like Mtn Dew can be. Sugar is an addictive substance and it lacks any nutritional value, and is also very fattening. These children will have a very high risk of becoming obese due to the type of diet that they are …show more content…
Many groups and organizations were put together to help fight the trend. First Lady Michelle Obama founded the group “Lets Move!,” which is dedicated to solve the problem of obesity in children. Her husband, President Obama, then created a task force to maximize federal resource and set benchmarks that would help the goal. The focus of the group is on these five things, creating a healthy start for children, empowering parents and caregivers, providing healthy foods in schools, improving access to healthy and affordable foods, and increasing physical activity. A big part of this was the change to public school lunches through the signing of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids act. This was the first time in 15 years that any change had been made to public school lunches. (Lets

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