Contributing Factors To Obesity Epidemic
According to Cleveland Clinic, cultural, social, and environmental factors, among others, all affect eating behaviors in the United States. The United States’s cultural habits relating to food may be the most significant factor in the obesity of its people. Many of America’s favorite foods, including hamburgers, french fries, and doughnuts, are high in carbohydrates content. These foods are relatively easy to make and many are deep fried. Adolescent children frequently demand that these foods be included in their diet. This trend reflects the fact that inexpensive, pre-packaged and high-calorie foods have become a major part of the country's diet. Major United States manufacturers of processed food, aware of the possible contribution of their products to the obesity epidemic, met together and discussed the problem as early as April 8, 1999; however, a proactive strategy was considered and rejected. As a general rule, optimizing the amount of salt, sugar and fat in a product will improve its palatability, and profitability; reducing those elements for the purpose of public health had the potential to decrease both.
As American families have become absorbed with other activities, formal meal time disappeared, leading to increased snacking all day without a nutritional meal. While other cultures will have a formal, planned meal with the family, Americans have lost this tradition. Along with other traditions of having certain foods for a special occasion and while some still remain such as the Thanksgiving turkey, mostly Americans have started having what they want when they want to have it because of how easy it has become to prepare packaged foods.
Americans are generally social which carries over into their eating habits. As Sidney Mintz, professor of anthropology at Johns Hopkins University said, "Interaction over food is the single most important feature of socializing." The business world typically transacts business deals over food. Along with other activities, such as when people get together to catch up, food is served. At parties, there is food everywhere, at sports gatherings, food concession stands are ubiquitous. Funerals become wakes where mourners eat as part of mourning.
The country has many labor-saving devices. This may contribute to obesity with people eating similar amounts of food while physical demands have diminished.
In 2011, researchers assessed the causal relationship between recent increases in female labor force participation and the increased prevalence of obesity among women and found no such causal link.
Read more about this topic: Obesity In The United States
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