There is a statistic that is growing at a tremendous rate worldwide. Over 40 percent of the U.S. population is a part of this statistic, furthermore, over 1 billion people in the world are a part of it. Sometimes, this problem is even seen as a beauty trait or an aspiration. With rates climbing significantly all across the world some countries have over 50 percent of their population with this condition. It is a fast-growing pandemic that is taking the world by storm. That awful statistic is obesity. Obesity is a growing problem that is enveloping our world today. To fully understand obesity and how to limit it, one needs to know what obesity is, the driving forces behind its rise, how the BMI scale determines obesity, and possible ways to lower obesity rates.

Beginning with, what is obesity? Obesity, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is described as, “the state or condition of being very fat or overweight.” There are many ways to tell if you are overweight. The Mayo Clinic published on September 2, 2021 that “Many doctors also measure a person's waist circumference to help guide treatment decisions.Weight-related health problems are more common in men with a waist circumference over 40 inches (102 centimeters), and in women with a waist measurement over 35 inches (89 centimeters)”. There are many factors that contribute to obesity. According to the CDC, March 21, 2022 “Many factors can contribute to excess weight gain including eating patterns, physical activity levels, and sleep routines. Social detriment of health, genetics, and taking certain medications also play a role.” Also obesity is on the rise. According to the NIDDK, a government organization,  Obesity is overtaking communities such as non-Hispanic black adults, non-Hispanic white adults, and Hispanic adults. In all these communities nearly half of the people are obese. Non-Hispanic white men and Hispanic white men have higher obesity rates than the women in their respective groups. Even so, Non-Hispanic black women have an astonishing rate of 56.9% obesity.  Obesity rates have been climbing at a rapid pace, which leads to increases in type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and even strokes, just to name a few.  Climbing obesity rates threaten not just the future of the United States, but the whole world. There are many reasons for the rapid uptick in obesity, but there are a few main ones causing this surge.

The obesity rate has shot up tremendously recently. One of the reasons for the increase is the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a report by Brandon J. Restrepo entitled “Adult Obesity Prevalence Increased During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic”, on July 5th, 2022, from the USDA, adult obesity was 3% higher from March 2020 to March 2021, which was the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. With everyone being stuck inside, destructive habits that are large causes for obesity increased. Those habits include drinking alcohol, smoking cigars/cigarettes, and eating large amounts of processed unhealthy foods. Another reason for the rise of obesity is inflation. While it is indirect, inflation plays a big role in what types of food consumers purchase. Over the last three years, inflation has shot up dramatically. Currently, in the United States, food inflation is at 10.1%, compared with just 1.8% in 2019, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is a very big issue, especially for healthy food. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, choosing a healthier diet is about $1.50 more expensive per day than eating an unhealthy one.  Especially coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic with an extremely high unemployment rate, people with little money simply can’t afford to eat healthy food. Without access to healthy food, lower income households can only afford to eat the unhealthy junk foods that have been a lead factor in obesity.  There is one more problem that is also contributing to this increase. The issue is the widespread body positivity movement. While loving one’s body is good, and feeling safe and confident is of paramount importance, being clinically unhealthy is not ok. However, many social media influencers such as Nikocado Avacado and Brianne Huntsman have pushed on young people to eat more and gain unhealthy amounts of weight. These same creators who spread body positivity have been seen hating on people who post dietary content, workout videos, and weight loss tips being extremely hypocritical and going against what their whole movement stands for. These are all legitimate reasons why the obesity rate is so high. Even though there is a major obesity problem, there is one problem which is misdiagnosing patients and not giving accurate measurements.

The Body Mass Index scale or more commonly referred to as the BMI scale has been used since the 1830’s. The BMI system uses a person's height in meters and divides it and divides it by their weight in kilograms. If you are over a 30 on the BMI scale then you are obese.However, this system doesn´t take into account the amount of muscle that a person has. This system is very outdated and there are better ways to measure a person's true body fat percentage other than this faulty method. The best way to measure true body fat is DEXA(Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry). But not everyone wants to buy a 16-22 thousand dollar machine to measure body fat. A good at-home way to get an accurate measurement of body fat is through the hip-waist ratio. By dividing your waist size by your hip size you can get a very close representation of your true body fat percentage. The BMI scale can give false information based on a lack of realistic measurements of body fat. I believe that the obesity rate is lower than what is being portrayed because of this faulty system. Though obesity is there, there needs to be a change in the way we determine who is or isn’t obese.

Fourth, how do we fix it? It’s going to be very hard to lower obesity rates for two main reasons. FIrst, is that a lot of people who are clinically obese will not put in enough effort to lose weight. Next, healthy food is too expensive. People can’t afford to eat healthily due to the high inflation rate in the US so they have turned to unhealthy counterparts. According to an NYU, a top ranked university, article labeled “Americans are Eating More Ultra-Processed Foods”, on October 14, 2021, people are eating significantly more ultra-processed foods since 2001, while the amount of whole food consumption has dropped drastically. Because of the increase in intake of these foods, and their connections to the increase of chronic disease, researchers recommend that the U.S. implements policies and restrictions to decrease the consumption of these products. Also to make whole foods affordable, especially for disadvantaged families”. One of the large issues with the obesity rate is SNAP. With SNAP you can buy unhealthy snacks, soft drinks (such as soda, iced tea, and even energy drinks), and even in some cases restaurant meals. The people who rely on SNAP are most under the poverty line or barely above it. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, National Poverty in America Awareness Month, January 2023,” The national poverty rate in 2021 was 11.6%, with 37.9 million people in poverty”. A huge number of this demographic is affected by obesity. On July 20, 2018, The Washington Post stated that 39% of the impoverished community is obese. This means that 14.781 million people were both obese and in poverty in 2021, which makes up 4.5% of the US’s population. SNAP needs to be modified because of the clear correlation between obesity and poverty. There would be millions of people across the nation that would live longer, happier, and healthier lives, even as a low income family. Obesity is affecting these impoverished neighborhoods negatively and needs to be stopped. In addition, the inflation crisis needs to be tamped down in order to make healthy diets more affordable than their obesity-inducing counterparts.

To summarize, obesity is a growing problem in the world, especially in the U.S. More people need to be educated on obesity to lower the rate, and mandates need to be set in place on super-processed foods so they don’t keep ruining our country. It’s know that it’s possible we don’t have as high of a rate as we think because of the faulty use of the BMI scale in medical exams. I want to help this country in any way I can, and I know it starts with the power in our country. The citizens. I don’t want to see a future where our country is ruined by the bad choices of our people. I hope to help and inform those who aren't. The US will lower that extreme 40 percent we are seeing today. Our country is strong enough to prevail.