Obesity is a serious problem in America. It is a much bigger problem than people perceive. In fact, over a third of the nation’s population is obese. Being obese and being overweight is not the same thing, although they are often perceived as being the same. Being overweight means that a person weighs too much in comparison with their height; however, obesity is observed by the amount of body fat a person has (Winters 44). Americans perceive being obese the same way they perceive being overweight; they see both as simply being a cosmetic problem that can be fixed with the right nutrition and diet (Hughes 72). This may be true for people that are overweight; however obesity is a very serious health problem whose solution must be further studied. In fact, the rate of obesity has raised so much over the past decades, it is considered to be one of America’s biggest health problems (Wang 1572). For one to solve the health problem of obesity, he or she must not assume that the solution of obesity for everyone is diet and exercise, but they must look further into obesity in race and age to determine the real factors. For one to begin to find the solution of obesity, it is necessary to observe obesity in children. Obesity in children is most often defined by an excess amount of body fat (Metz 129). It is obvious that childhood is the most common age group affected by …show more content…
In fact one study that was done in a mainly White population found that out of the population’s children who were ten to fifteen years old, 80% of them were obese by twenty-five, and the rate of children not getting enough sleep is increasing; however, childhood obesity can be studied in an even smaller