During early human history, our ancestors developed an inclination toward foods containing high amounts of fat and sugar. Since food was so hard to come by, they needed those high calorie foods to help sustain their energy until the next time they were able to eat. Fast forward thousands of years to today, when times have changed, and our eating habits should have as well. In present day this inclination, no longer serves as a survival technique. Instead, it encourages an unhealthy lifestyle, and has helped cause a worldwide health epidemic: obesity.

Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, which is calculated from weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared. A study completed by healthintelligence.org in 2013 showed that the global rate of overweight and obese adults raised from 30.4% in 1990, to 37.5% in 2013. If the trend continues at this rate adults with a healthy weight will become a minority by 2039. In over 100 countries around the world they already are the minority! An increased abundance of food doesn’t explain this phenomenon since developed nations have maintained a relatively similar access to food between 1990 and 2013, yet their overweight and obesity prevalence has risen at a similar rate as the rest of the world. Although there are multiple involuntary factors that lead someone to become overweight or obese, obesity is too often caused by an unhealthy lifestyle and environment that is becoming increasingly common. Due to the negative effects of obesity, it is something that should be widely discouraged by society.

Before a discussion on obesity can begin, one must understand why it is a problem. Obesity is predominately considered to be aesthetically unappealing, but this superficial reason alone is not why it is problematic. Despite what many fat acceptance advocates believe, obesity has been proven to have a negative effect on an individual’s health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc.gov), has found that obesity significantly heightens the chance of suffering from the following ailments: hypertension, high cholesterol, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, breathing problems, depression, anxiety, body pains, certain cancers including endometrial, colon, gallbladder, liver, kidney, and breast cancer. Obesity is undeniably a liability to an individual’s health, and consequently, to a country’s economy as well.

There are three major ways in which obesity affects a countries economy, with the most monetarily costly being direct medical costs. In 2008 The Medical Expenditure Panel survey along with National Expenditure Accounts data reported that the medical costs related to obesity totaled an estimated 147 billion dollars. Absenteeism (missing work due to obesity related causes) and presenteeism (decreased workplace productivity due to obesity related causes) are productivity costs that also negatively affect America’s economy. A study completed by JG Trogdon in 2008 concluded that the combined total productivity cost due to absenteeism and presenteeism was 11.7 billion dollars. Another way obesity costs us, is with transportation. Increases in body weight among Americans mean that more fuel and, potentially, larger vehicles are needed to transport the same number of commuters and travelers each year. This produces a direct cost (in the form of greater spending on fuel), as well as potential indirect costs in the form of greater greenhouse gas emissions. A study done in 2009 by SH Jacobson and D King estimated the additional annual fuel consumption by noncommercial passenger highway travel in America that is associated with overweight and obesity to be approximately one billion gallons, which at current US gas prices would be about 2.7 billion dollars. Eradicating obesity and its related costs altogether would be impossible but if just half of that money could go back into education, healthcare, veterans benefits, etc America could benefit greatly from that. The world needs to recognize how costly obesity can be, and do something to help reverse this epidemic.

There seems to be a dichotomy on how obesity should be viewed, and this dichotomy hinders progress from being made regarding how obesity should be dealt with. On one side people want to classify obesity as a disease or disability, a result of involuntary medical conditions, therefore accommodations should be made by our society. Meanwhile others believe that obesity is the negative consequence of unhealthy lifestyle choices, and that it should be discouraged and accommodations for obese people should not be made. Ultimately both sides need to be taken into account because it is negligent to ignore the personal responsibility involved with avoiding obesity, but it is equally negligent to ignore the circumstances outside of an individual’s control that elicit obesity.

Most people are aware of these factors which lead to obesity: overeating, eating too many unhealthy foods, and physical inactivity. For the most part people are able to control these factors, and are personally responsible for their own obesity if it is caused by one of these. However, genetics and certain medical conditions can be the reason for a person’s obesity. For example, one genetic cause of obesity is leptin deficiency. Leptin is a hormone that controls weight, if for some reason, the body cannot produce enough leptin or leptin cannot signal the brain to eat less, this control is lost, and obesity occurs. Hypothyroidism, Cushing's syndrome, and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) are three medical conditions that influence excessive weight gain also.

Hypothyroidism is a condition in which the thyroid gland doesn't make enough thyroid hormone. Lack of thyroid hormone will slow down your metabolism and cause weight gain. You'll also feel tired and weak, making physical activity harder. Cushing’s syndrome is a condition in which the body's adrenal glands make too much of the hormone cortisol, and when cortisol levels are high, your body resists weight loss. PCOS is a condition caused by high levels of androgens, which lead to obesity, excess hair growth, and reproductive problems and other health issues. The inability for people to control conditions like these that induce obesity gives merit to the idea that it should be treated as a disability/disease with sympathy and accommodations given to people who suffer from this.

Be that as it may, it is highly doubtful that these involuntary medical conditions constitute the seven percent increase of the global overweight/obese adult population between 1990 and 2013. This global obesity epidemic has to be attributed to an increasing prevalence of unhealthy lifestyles, in conjunction with the increasingly unhealthy environment that humans, especially Americans, place themselves in. Due to the type of lifestyle that our ancestors lived thousands of years ago obesity was not an issue. Now, technology not only makes access to food, and therefore overeating, immeasurably easier, it also nurtures a lifestyle of decreased physical activity. These play a huge role in the world’s proliferation of obesity, as well the environment humans place themselves in which encourages unhealthy choices.

Oversized food portions, lack of access to healthy foods, and food advertising that disproportionately features unhealthy foods are environmental factors that contribute to obesity. Americans especially are exposed to huge food portions in restaurants, fast food places, gas stations, movie theaters, supermarkets, and even at home. Eating large portions means too much energy going in, and over time, this will cause weight gain if it isn't balanced with physical activity. Lack of access to healthy foods is another serious problem. Some people don't live in neighborhoods that have supermarkets that sell healthy foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables. Even more troublesome, is the fact that healthy foods usually cost a lot more than junk food. Americans are surrounded by ads from food companies and often children are the targets of advertising for high-calorie, high-fat snacks and sugary drinks. The goal of these ads is to sway people to buy these high-calorie foods, and often they do, getting children in the habit of making unhealthy choices leading many to become overweight during adulthood.

In conclusion, after explaining the causes that led to this obesity epidemic, and why it is problematic, it is important that a discussion on how to curb this issue takes place. Although there are a small amount of people who deserve accommodations for their excessive weight accumulation due to medical conditions outside their control, the vast majority of the blame for obesity lies on individuals and the unhealthy environment our society promotes. Michele Obama's “Let’s Move” initiative is a good example of how the government and celebrities need to get involved in this matter to promote physical activity and a healthy lifestyle choices, especially for children. Still more needs to be done. Healthy foods should be offered at affordable prices comparable to unhealthy food, and it should be made more available, especially in schools and other places where children are. Lastly and most importantly, our society needs to come to an agreement that being obese is not acceptable (outside of the few involuntary circumstances previously mentioned) and that it is our responsibility to make sure we avoid becoming obese and incurring all the problems that go along with obesity.