The media- Is it affecting our views on weight?

The media. Whether you like it or not, it influences our views every second of our life. Weight, these days, is one of the biggest topics everywhere, from anorexic models hobbling down runways, to overexaggerated weight loss shows (ex. the biggest loser). Everywhere you go, you seem to be caught up in a whirlwind of McDonald's commercials advertising fatty foods and shows that are glorifying weightloss to the extent that people are punished for not losing enough! I mean really, how is someone supposed to be motivated to lose weight when they see someone else being "voted off" the biggest loser for losing to little of weight? How is a person supposed to differentiate between a healthy weight or an unhealthy weight when the only veiws that are being imposed on us are two different extremes? My opinion is that an individual should be the weight that they feel comfortable in and that they can be proud of themselves at. But with so many aspects of the media pushing people to go to dangerous extremes, how will someone know when enough is enough?

Real life Heros- Defeating obesity

There are many people who are currently striving to beat obesity, but one person in particular is Linda Fondren, one of the CNN heroes of the year. After her sister died in 2006, Linda decided to relive her memory by challenging the state of Mississipi (which hs been known for a while as the fattest state in the nation) to lose weight. She had remember that her sister (who was obese) had been too embarassed to work out at a gym with men so she started out by opening up her own women only gym which she called Shape Up Sisters. The gym did very well, but Linda knew that she would have to broaden her horizons if she wanted to complete her mission. She recognized that most people in her communtity didn't even know they had a weight problem because being obese was considered normal. So she started a program called Shape Up Vicksburg! She held free fitness and nutrition classes and convinced a good portion of the ciy's resteraunts to add healthier items to their menus, and planted weigh in stations in medical centers and walmarts. She also made a website were members could track their weight loss online! Today, approximatly 2500 people have joined Linda's movement, and together they have lost a total of 15,000 pounds!

Obesity books

Here are the names of some books related to obesity:

Fat Politics: The Real Story behind America's Obesity Epidemic
by J. Eric Oliver. 228 pgs

The Management of Obesity and Related Disorders
by Peter G. Kopelman. 258 pgs.

Book

Overweight Teenagers: Don't Bear the Burden Alone
by Michael D. Lebow. 250 pgs

The Overweight Patient: A Psychological Approach to Understanding and Working with Obesity
by Kathy Leach. 269 pgs.

If you want to know more about Obesity and how to deal with it, I would suggest these!

The Social impacts of obesity

Take a look at this picture. I beleive that it demonstrates perfectly to how obesity can affect your social life. Most people, when they become obese, cut off people that were close to them, and avoid pretty much any social interaction. I think that is probably the main reason that people who are obese are generally depressed as well. Along with the sadness they inflict on themselves, people around them can become increasingly cruel. For most victims of obesity, even walking out to get the mail is a dangerous task, as people can be extremely rude and judgemental.

Here is yet another video regarding obesity:
http://news.yahoo.com/video/health-15749655/canada-weighs-in-sleep-and-obesity-23721807#video=23814863

How you can prevent obesity

Sure it's good for you to know all of the side effects of obesity and how serious it is, but most importantly, you need to know how to prevent it from affecting you. Of course it's not contageous, so you can't simply bring along hand sanitizer or wear rubber gloves. It's much harder than that. Since the main problem is the chemicals in our foods, it's pretty hard to just eat healthy too (although it helps to not eat things such as greasy fries or sugary pop) so I guess the key must lie in a series of things. According to health canada, the three best ways to reduce your risk of obesity are #1 excercise regularily #2 Avoid fad diets ( they help you lose weight fast at first, but once you return to your regular diet, you will just gain it all back)  and #3 always read the nutrition labels on foods to make healthy choices regarding your diet. Follow these three things and you can hopefully look forward to a fat free future!

Obesity cartoon

Here is a funny cartoon that shows the effect of child obesity:

Pictures of obesity

Here are some pictures of the more serious effects of obesity:


Osteoarthritis:                                           Type 2 diabetes:
             

I couldn't find a good picture of cancer caused by obesity so I found this instead

Obesity- it can kill you

Obesity, though it may surprise you, is one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide! Mortality rates related to obesity have nearly doubled, and in the U.S, it is recorded to cause nearly 365 000 deaths per year. Obesity can also lower one's life expectancy. On average, it can reduce it by up to seven years, but in more severe cases, it can lower it by 10! Imagine, instead of living to the ripe old age of 90, you only live until 80 just because you are fat!

Childhood obesity video

Here is a link to a news video on childhood obesity:


http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2010/11/06/nr.target.childhood.obesity.nn                                

also check out this websit for more obesity related videos:

http://topics.cnn.com/topics/obesity

(oh and It's not on youtube so don't worry you can access it at school)

Link

Here is a link to some real life success stories of people who have overcome obesity and turned their life around:

http://www.obesityinamerica.org/successStories/

Effects of obesity

Though obesity may seem like a funny subject, it's actually quite serious. Being obese can hve very serious and deadly effects on your life that can shorten your time with the people you love.
  Many different ailments have been linked back to obesity, however, there are a select few that stood out in my mind. One of these was Type 2 diabetes. 70% of all people who have type 2 diabetes have it because they are overweight. In 2007 over 150000 children in the US hadd type 2 diabetes,and had to inject themselves with insulin every day.
 Another one of these diseases is Osteoarthritis. This is a degenerative joint disease that has been linked to being obese. I guess this one pretty much explains itself, the stress that you put on your joints everyday by the huge amounts of weight cause them to break down quicker, causing stiffness, aching and pain.
 Last but not least, cancer. Though it may surprise you, obesity has been linked to many different types of cancers! Scientests do not know exactly how, but they have theorized that when someone is obese, their chemical balance is offset, which can be the cause of many different cancers.

Making a difference

 When most people see someone who is overweight, they say something like "they let themselves get like that" and would do nothing to help them out. So much so in fact, that it could really in my opinion be viewed as a type of racism. Thankfully, there are some people out their with big enough hearts to do something for these people. Everyday people such as doctors, teachers, and nutritionists work endlessly  to assist these people and help them improve their condition. Certain programs have also been developed to assist the overweight, and scientests are also investigating different causes and cures for obesity. My hope is that someday we can find an easy, affordable and unharmful way to tackle our world's issues with obesity!