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Essay Instructions: Obesity in America and how it effects overall public health as it relates to an increase in various diseases.

Essay Instructions: obesity - please incorporate sociological perspectives, impact of variables, and impact on society.
Three sources must be from scholarly journals.
Provide an in-depth look at obesity in our country in comparison to other countries. minimum number of quotations= 10.

Essay Instructions: Obesity is a major problem in modern America. Who is to blame? A corporation? The individual? Society? Or is it really a matter of blame? After viewing the following sites, answer the questions and relate other examples, too, into the answers.

Web Research:

Go to http://www.gmabrands.com/. (This site is preferably viewed with Internet Explorer.) http://www.gmabrands.com/news/docs/Testimony.cfm?DocID=1274 is the expanded address for this topic and will take right there!

* Choose Public Policy from the top navigation bar.
* Select Priority Programs from the Section Contents navigation bar.
* Select Obesity from the list of Priority Programs.
* Read "2/18/04 GMA Testifies Before Vermont House Committee on Obesity".

Assignment:

Compose an essay that answers the following questions:

1. What arguments are being raised by the Grocery Manufacturers of America?
2. Are they taking responsibility as contributors to the obesity epidemic? If yes, list them. If not, why not?
3. Are they recommending restricting access to unhealthy foods as an answer to the obesity problem?
4. After reading this article, do you believe that it is the industry's fault or should the burden of responsibility be on the consumer who is making the food choices?
5. Is it really a crime to offer variety and to allow the consumer to make a knowledgeable choice?
6. By analyzing the positive and negative repercussions of this particular release, present your opinion as to whether the action is a step forward or a step backward in the battle against obesity.

Some other sources for researching obesity are:

http://www.iom.edu/
http://health.nih.gov
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/
http://www.cdc.gov/
http://www.acsm.org/

Essays are to be a maximum of two double spaced, one inch margins, 12 pt pages written in Microsoft Word

Essay Instructions: Obesity Sells:

One of the subjects that has absolutely been beaten to death in the last 15 years is the American obesity epidemic.
A recent New York Times article stated that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has concluded that 34 percent of American adults and 17 percent of American children are currently obese-figures which have doubled and tripled in the last 20 years.
Obesity seems to be a problem that isn’t going away, no matter how much we’re all tired of hearing about it. In facts, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say obesity has plateaued to a new high. To me, this is strange because I feel that more than ever the importance of proper nutrition is being thrown in my face everywhere I go.
It might appear that this is all an effort to get America healthy, but is it really helping? Grocery stores have big, green stickers that read “organic” on fruit that costs double what “regular” fruit does. Restaurants are offering low calories menus, and schools are implementing regulations that restrict the amount of calories kids get in their school lunches. Shows like The Biggest Loses, Celebrity Fit Club, and Dance Your Ass Off are dominating reality television.
Despite all of these recent changes, obesity is still at an all time high.
The bottom line is that I can’t help but feel like obesity is something that many major corporations don’t want to go away. Overweight people have become marketing targets that are urged to buy workout DVDs, pre-packaged frozen dinners and gym memberships. It has become almost ingrained into our pop culture instead of a health epidemic. I could get behind a campaign where getting healthy is the “cool” thing to do, but with the data recent statistics has provided us, it really doesn’t appear that’s what is going on here at all.