New York Citys public health enemy number one

Running Head : New York City 's public health enemy number one

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Introduction

The World Health Organization (WHO ) defines obesity and overweight as an accumulation of excess body fat to an extent that may impair health The WHO uses Body Mass Index (BMI ) to measure excess fat . To get a person 's BMI , a person 's weight (in kilograms ) is divided by their square of their height (in meters . A BMI of 25 or more is considered overweight while a BMI of 30 and

more is considered obesity ( HYPERLINK "http /www .who .int /obesity /en www .who .int /obesity /en . Obesity is a condition that results from eating more calories than one can expend and as a result this is stored as energy reserves in the form of fat . Obesity predisposes one to diabetes , cardiovascular conditions , arthritis and some cancers (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Disease (NIDDK Obesity therefore is a condition that leads to great strain of the country 's health budget and is in fact already doing so

Energy imbalance over along period of time will usually result in obesity . The cause of energy imbalance for every person is usually due to interplay of several factors . Body weight is influenced by genetic makeup , behavior , culture , environment and socioeconomic status . In causation of obesity , behavior and environment are the most significant factors . This means that these are the areas that should be targeted by prevention and treatment programs (US Surgeon General , 2001

The Center for Disease Control (CDC ) reports that the approximately 65 of the adults in US are either overweight or obese (CDC , 2004 ) children and adolescents are also affected by the same trends . The CDC further reports that about 16 of children and adolescents from the ages of 6-19 are overweight , a number that is three times what it was in 1980 (CDC 2004 . This trend is one that should cause a lot of worry because overweight and obese youth are likely to become overweight and obese adults who will develop severe health problems

New York State reflects a similar trend . More than half , about 56 of adults in New York are overweight (CDC , 2004 . The rate of obesity has doubled between 1990 and 2002 , New York state adolescents are also affected in a similar way , with about 28 of adolescents being overweight or being at risk overweight as reported by the New York State Department of Health (USDA , 2004

The Trust for America 's Health in a report ranks New York 34th in the US in the highest rate of adult obesity at 21 .2 percent (Trust for America 's Health , 2007 . The report states that about 16 of active duty US military personnel are obese making obesity the leading reason for discharge from the military (Trust for America 's Health ,2007

Obesity is definitely a crisis in America as can be elicited from the surgeon-General 's statement that about one out of every eight deaths in America...