According to Trust For America’s Health (TFAH) and the CDC, obesity rates in 2022 have reached 41.9% for adults and around 20% for children. Though there are no concrete conclusions as to the specific cause of this rise, experts and researchers agree that the general problem is “too much food and too little exercise”. Obesity is on the rise, yet experts may have found the causes.

 Some speculate that the availability, as well as the popularity of fast foods has spurred this weight epidemic (as classified by the WHO in 1997) and that the high contents of calories and trans-fats in these foods are to blame. 

Problems relating to obesity manifest in an increased risk to a plethora of diseases such as: diabetes, high blood pressure, gout, depression, and bone problems. Though there are many conflicting numbers, the CDC defines obese as having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 and above. 

The BMI takes a person’s weight and divides it by the square of their height and is used to screen for weight categories. There is some contention to its efficacy however as it does not consider many other aspects of a person such as age or muscle content.

 This situation is not helpless, however, according to the Publichealth, increasing the budget on sports and physical education classes in schools would help slow down obesity. 

On top of this, restricting access to junk foods in schools and nationwide would lead to better choices among the populous and allow citizens to lead longer and healthier lives. Some people believe that restricting access to junk food to children, however, may cause them to become pressured to eat food they dislike and waste their food more often thus robbing them of vital energy they need within the day. Junk food is much cheaper than healthier options which can be useful to children with busy parents.  

Obesity is not an unsolvable issue and though there are many causes, individuals and institutions are working hard to help solve the problem of obesity in America.