INFORMEDdebate
YES
from members:
Michael J. Barie
Detroit, MI
Veronica Capello
Schererville, IN
Environment and
heredity are equally
important, but hered-
ity plays a factor in
the level of difficulty in
managing weight.
Is obesity
Jolene K. Muckley
Bothell, WA
a disease?
PhOTOdISc
NO
AccOrdIng TO ThE centers for disease
control and Prevention, more than one-third of U.S.
adults—more than 72 million people—and 16 percent of U.S. children are obese.
Obese individuals are those who have an excess accumulation and storage of body
fat and a body mass index of 30 or greater (for adults).
The World health Organization, the U.S. Food and drug Administration and the
national Institutes of health consider obesity a disease. Proponents of this classification say that obesity, like other diseases, impairs the body’s normal functioning,
decreases a person’s life expectancy and can cause death. And, like other diseases,
they add, obesity can be inherited.
critics argue that obesity is a matter of personal responsibility. They say people
become obese because they make poor dietary choices and do not exercise
enough or at all. They assert that while obesity may trigger various diseases, it is
not a disease in and of itself. Moreover, many people considered medically obese
are not physically impaired and live normal lives, others say.
What do you think?
from members:
Tami Norby
Astoria, OR
Brian Erickson
Anchorage, AK
Our society has
become sedentary
and inactive, coupled
with poor food choices
based on heavily pro-
cessed food and refined sugars.
Find out more about this topic on the Web:
•;
www.uhealthsystem.com
•;www.obesity.org
•;www.obesityinamerica.org/statistics/index.cfm
•;http://business.theatlantic.com/2009/07/americas_moral_
panic_over_obesity.php
Guadalupe Hernandez
Stockbridge, GA
I believe that eating right
and exercise can prevent
obesity. We must learn
what to eat and not just
continue eating what we
have always been eating.
