To what extent do you perceive obesity to be a personal problem or a social problem?  Why? 

Please review the attached responses and respond to the listed post. Please write as if you are adding to the conversation and not analyze the structure of their post. Please label each paragraph’s response 1 response 2. Take the topic and expand it further into three separate paragraphs of 125 words each: • When responding to your peers, comment to his or her response. You want to also include at least one open-ended question about their response. References: Burke, M. A., & Heiland, F. W. (2018). Evolving societal norms of obesity. JAMA, 319(3), 221-222. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.18947 Cohen, D. (2013). A big fat crisis: The hidden forces behind the obesity epidemic-and how we can end it. Hachette UK. Response 1 Delan: Obesity has become an epidemic in recent time especially in the United States. According to data from the 2013-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES),1 both the prevalence of adult obesity and the prevalence of youth obesity achieved all-time highs, 37.7% for adults and 17.2% for youth (Burke, M. A., & Heiland, F. W. 2018). I believe the issue with obesity is both a personal and social problem. We live in a world where advertisements for unhealthy, processed foods are pushed on us from a young age. As children we beg to go to fast food establishments because we are rewarded with toys with our meals as well as a playground. That is extremely problematic as it creates an unhealthy habit of stopping by fast food whenever you’re hungry and drive by one. Television portrays commercials detailing their newest items while almost never advertising healthy options to cook at home. Restaurants become famous for serving extremely large portions. All of these things help foster obesity across the country before we are even old enough to decide for ourselves what food is “good and bad”. In the same breath though, people realize that they have unhealthy diets and relationships with food but do nothing to fix. I myself have struggled with that. I at one point was going to the gym 6 days a week and weighed 190 pounds of lean muscle, then I had surgery on my ankle while my wife was pregnant with our daughter, so our eating habits fell off the wagon and I was unable to get into the gym to the gym to at least attempt to make up for it. This created an unhealthy cycle of continuously purchasing fast food because it was quick, cheap, and easy. That is a personal decision we continue to make. So, obesity is something I would consider to be mainly a social problem but at some point, people need to take accountability for their actions which also makes it a personal problem. Delan Burke, M. A., & Heiland, F. W. (2018). Evolving societal norms of obesity: What is the appropriate response? (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.) JAMA, 319(3), 221–222. Response 2: Michelle • Based on both the Module Notes, the assigned reading, and video, to what extent do you perceive obesity to be a personal problem or a social problem?  Why?   As the data has shown obesity is a common problem among all social platforms. Obesity affects our personal lives as well as the lives of others. For one thing, an obese person has a life expectancy of 7-20 years shorter than a non-obese individual (Hofmann, 2021). A person who suffers from obesity also is susceptible to many types of diseases such as cancer and hypertension as well as other diseases which are common with obesity. The condition of obesity may also be frowned upon by social norms. • What do you see as the most important individual or social factors that cause overeating?   Many factors contribute to obesity. The first and worst factor is availability. The foods that are readily available are some of the worst foods that you can eat. In today’s world there are so many options. There is an abundance of fast-food chains to choose from, which most do not offer healthy options. Even if you stay away from the fast-food lifestyle not all foods we may purchase, in the supermarket, are easy to prepare. This may lead one to buy unhealthy foods, foods that are prepacked with lots of sodium and non-sustainable nutrients. We all do not have the necessary time to prepare meals and therefore we resort to these prepared meals that can fill our stomach and can be purchased on a budget. • From your perspective, what do you see as the greatest impact obesity has on society as a social problem?   The greatest impact that I see, as a social problem, is the infrastructure. For many years now, as you go to various places, you may notice larger furniture. An example would be when you go to the doctor’s office you will see an array of chairs to choose from. Some of the chairs are quite larger than others. If the rate of obesity continues to increase, we may have a need for other changes. To name a couple changes that we could see, one might notice doorways being made larger, elevators adjustments necessary in order to hold a higher total weight capacity. Hofmann, B. (2016). Obesity as a socially defined disease: Philosophical considerations and implications for policy and care. (Links to an external site.) Health Care Analysis, 24(1), 86–100.