Causes and Effects of American Obesity

Outline

The Outline of the paper is as follows;

Introduction

Obesity Causes

Obesity's Effects

Conclusion

Thesis Statement

Obesity is a major problem in American and continues to get worse and worse as time goes on. Because America is a free nation, its people have the opportunity to invent and come up with great technologies that make life easier.

Introduction

Americans' obesity has rapidly increased because of advanced technology and Americans' lack of self control. Obesity has been designated as a global epidemic by the World Health Organization since 1998 and is one of the most common chronic illnesses for both adults and children. The American Obesity Association states that currently 64.5% of adult Americans and 45.6% of American children are categorized as overweight or obese, which means they have too much body fat. (Pool 120-158)

Obesity Causes

First of all, the workplace has become increasingly automated. Back in the olden times, people had to do manual labor and actually exercise most of the day. Today, machines do the hard work so one does not have to do manual labor. (Levy-Navarro 150-358) Labor saving technology like washing machines which save one from the pain of scrubbing clothes against a washboard and computers which can send emails instantly to another person on the other side of the country have caused people to stop exercising and participate in leisure activities much more often. However, the biggest cause of labor saving technology in the workplace is computers. Computers run machines which make cars, cook food, cut wood, and thousands of other tasks that used to require vigorous exercise. So without the computers, the machines could not run or perform any tasks effectively. Nearly all businesses rely on computers, and without their precious computers, their businesses would deteriorate in no time. (Kopelman 350-493) Although obesity has grown because of the increasingly automated workplace, it is not the only cause.

A second cause of Americans' obesity comes from the home. Household chores are also assisted by labor-saving machinery. For example, before gas fireplaces were invented, a person had to chop down a tree by hand and chop that tree into smaller pieces. This process was very long and strenuous, exercising the legs, chest, and arms. Today, however, all you have to do to make a fire is light a match or turn a knob that lights the gas in the fireplace. Or if a person is too lazy to get up to turn the knob on the fireplace, all they have to do is press a button on a remote control to light the fire. Another chore that is much easier because of technology is preparing food. Obtaining food is simple, cheap, (Kolata 120-258) and easy to come by. Working on the farm used to be the only way a family could get food. It required extensive labor and patience to raise a good crop and effectively raise cattle. One could not just take a vacation when they got tired because the crops would die ("Hard Work").

Nowadays, all a person has ...