Obesity
Exploring world data, causes, and consequences
For this Story Map, I decided to narrow down my topic by focusing on three questions that will help the research process. First, I wanted to know what regions have a higher prevalence of obesity? To add onto this, are there common reasons for obesity that are related to an identity or cultural problem for these regions, especially in the United States? Finally, by observations, are these locations classified as a region of the Western World? The shown graphic shows how the Western World is perceived by most people. Having this as a guide can help determine how these countries can be limped as a part of the Western World by looking at a factor such as obesity. This Story Map will mainly focus on the theme of region, the Western World, while also observing relevant concepts such as place, human-environment interactions, and identity.
Word Bank for Descriptions of Obesity
One might wonder why this Story Map is taking on the topic of obesity? Well, for our purpose, we want to observe if this factor is a defining factor of what makes a country Western. The Western World is a perceived geography and there is not a whole lot of great distinction of which countries are included. The previous diagram will help with our analysis. Currently, obesity is changing the world as we see it. Childhood obesity rates are increasing gradually which is a main concern for society. Obesity early on can cause some major health problems. To prevent this, countries should examine their culture and identity to observe how it might influence kids, and even adults, to become lazier and overweight. It hurts the economy as well as the individual.
Global Obesity in Adults
"10 Facts: The Developing World's Obesity Problem." The Globalist: Rethinking Globalization. The Globalist, 28 Oct. 2015. Web. 07 June 2020. <https://www.theglobalist.com/developing-world-obesity-problem-health/>.
Across the world, around 60% of people who are considered obese live in developed countries. Excluding the Republic of Nauru, Saudi Arabia has the highest obesity rate. The United States is not too far behind with an adult obesity rate around 33%. A large increase mainly worldwide occurred after the 1980s. Currently, developed countries experiencing greater rates of obesity than undeveloped countries. Based on these rates, some European countries will catch up to United States and overpass Saudi Arabia. Overall, obesity rates are low in third-world countries. This article gave quick, short facts that allow the audience to understand the general premise of world obesity rates.
Here we can observe the countries who have high adult obesity percentages. There is no immediate connection with obesity and the western world. Some countries have different cultures and identities that are an indirect result of obesity. Saudi Arabia has the highest percentage of obesity. Interestingly, I also learned that there's a higher percentage of females who are obese compared to males which usually occurs in third-world countries. In the United States, it is the opposite. One can also look up maps like this one and observe a similar pattern. This article helped in the research process to examine which places had higher obesity rates. Most of the stats based on overweight adults talked about the classic Western countries. It also provided some interesting content that sparked more questions such as why do these countries have higher rates? One might ponder if there's a certain relationship with countries that have a higher obesity rate.
Childhood Obesity Epidemic
Phillips, Frankie, and Zena Nadeem. "Childhood Obesity – Why Is It on the Rise?" BBC Good Food. Immediate Media Company, 03 July 2018. Web. 08 June 2020. <https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/childhood-obesity>.
The article mentions WHO (World Health Organization) lists childhood obesity as the most severe global epidemic. Children are becoming obese at quicker rates. Currently, this shift of rapid growth is within Asian countries. However, there are still a predominant amount of Children, ages 10-11, in Europe who are considered obese. This approximately 1 in 5 children who are obese. When these children are adults around the age of 40, 85% of them will become obese if this trend continues. Kids who are overweight will tend to see childhood obesity around the age mark of 11-15 years old. The author mentions a few proposed causes of childhood obesity such as a lack of sleep, long screen times, eating high-energy snacks, and a lack of exercise. The Dr. also provides solutions, mainly exercise that can help children fight this health condition.
The article provides great information on childhood obesity. The article helps the audience understand how the growth of obesity relates to childhood obesity. If more children notice obesity earlier on in their childhood, chances are, that country will experience another boom in this health condition. This article also depicts the themes of regions such as Europe and places like United States that will eventually observe a large increase in adult obesity. The graphic provided demonstrates the percentages of boys who are considered overweight. It was difficult to find statistics for both genders but reveals how Western countries are observing a prevalence of obesity among children.
Cause/Effect of Obesity
Renee, Janet. "Obesity History in America." LiveStrong. Leaf Group, n.d. Web. 07 June 2020. <https://www.livestrong.com/article/359624-obesity-history-in-america/>.
Although there isn't direct reasons as to why there was such an increase in obesity since the 1980s, a timeline of potential causes can answer this question of uncertainty. The United States is a prime example of a country who saw obesity rates skyrocket because of how well the economy was doing after this time period. During the 1980s, most families were poor. However, more families in the U.S. were now able to afford food and especially in higher bulk.
This was also during the outbreak of new entertainment platforms, especially video games. Today, more than 50% of kids in the U.S. play video games which is more prevalent now than it was then. Most American families also enjoy the luxury of watching TV at home. Currently, video games appeal to kids more than exercise which is an important factor that caused an increase in childhood obesity.
As a result, kids and adults are becoming extremely overweight. Some of the consequences of obesity can be constipation, feeling lethargic, and increasing the chances of other health related diseases.
This article provided great insight to my topic. It allows the audience to observe a cultural and identity problem that is mainly happening to developed countries. There is a new shift in lifestyle that allows families to have more access to unhealthier foods and entertainment platforms that causes them to be lazy. Today, video games are more prevalent in the Western World. Children in the United States are adapting to this lifestyle of staying at home watching tv and playing video games. Populations and places are being effected by this new shift in lifestyle. Obesity comes with several detriments to one's health. The obvious is weight gain and increasing the risk of a heart attack. I was able to understand some of the problems obese people deal with such as being moody, lethargic, and dehydrated.
Economic Effects
Nath, Trevir. "The Economic Cost of an Obese Society." Investopedia. Dotdash, 25 May 2019. Web. 08 June 2020. <https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/041715/economic-cost-obese-society.asp>.
Although health is an obvious consequence of obesity, it also has a major impact on economy. The article examines how the rates of obesity has boomed over the last couple of decades. In fact, the obesity worldwide has almost tripled since 1980. As the economy has generally been well, households are receiving higher incomes and have undergone unnecessary spending to create this health problem. Due to the higher prevalence of obesity, health care prices have skyrocketed to accommodate for this recent shift. In fact, due to growing rates of obesity in the 21st century, America has seen the cost of healthcare increase by $190 billion each year! Diabetes, often a direct consequence of being overweight, has been the main factor in the increasing cost.
Besides healthcare, obesity does impact the GDP and overall production. In the last few years, obesity is the third most social problem that humans are responsible for. Every year, there is a $2 trillion detriment to the economy. It accounts for a loss of 2.8% to the GDP. These loses can be contributed to a decrease in productivity, more sick days, and more health claims made by the employees. Obese people generally have a lower income and create an economic burden for the employer.
From the article, the stats prove why obesity is a problem not just for the individual, but as well as the populous. The consequences show how the cultural and identity problems have now shaped the economy and the health of people. The economy is directly impacted by large obesity rates in each country. This graph shows how obesity effects the GDP of the following countries. Most of these countries that must burden this load are a part of the Western World. Some people consider wealth or developed countries as those part of the Western World. However, not all of the richer countries follow this trend. Some countries in Europe that are more affluent show great signs of low obesity rates. How come? This could be partly due to their identity and culture. Looking at the world map before, some of these countries that have lower rates of obesity are still greatly impacted.
Plumer, Brad. "Map: Here's How Much Each Country Spends On food." Vox. Vox Media, 06 July 2014. Web. 08 June 2020. <https://www.vox.com/2014/7/6/5874499/map-heres-how-much-every-country-spends-on-food>.
This covers how Western World countries and developing countries spend on food. The criteria for money spent of food looked at what percentage of the household budget was spent on food. Interestingly enough, Western countries generally spent less of their budget on food and focused more of their spending on other expenses such as healthcare and forms of entertainment. This trend started to form after 1980 when obesity rates increased. Although the Western countries were spending less of their income on food, the criteria only examined on consumption of foods at home. This explains why, generally, wealthier countries are observing rapid rates. Although Western countries are spending about less than 10% of their income on food at home, they are wealthy enough to dine out compared to developing countries who spend roughly 30% of their income on food at home.
How Spending on Food has Changed since 1980
The previous article examined some potential causes as to why obesity rates are rapidly increasing in Western countries. The diagram on the left also supports what the article mentioned about wealthier countries spending less on food consumed at home compared to developing countries. The article examined the human-environment interactions. Due to people receiving higher incomes, they have took advantage of eating out and grabbing fast food more often. This also examined how certain regions such as the UK and places such as the U.S. spend their money on food.
Ali, Sajjad. "Which Country Spends Most on Video Games - Top Ten." CountriesNow. CountriesNow, 23 Apr. 2013. Web. 08 June 2020. <https://www.countriesnow.com/which-country-spends-most-on-video-games/>.
As entertainment is on the rise in the 21st century, this article examines countries that put much of their money into gaming. The author mentions that part of the rise has to do with the increasing options available for adults and kids to play videogames. Enter the smartphone. Nearly the entire populous has a smartphone that has an app which allows an individual to download all sorts of games- ones that are quick or funny. There are more games and apps that appeal to more of the population. This new trend is mainly observed in Western countries. However, there are a few non-Western countries such as China which invests quite a bit into videogames. Smartphones now have dominated the world of videogaming by bringing in $41 billion in revenue which is the most profitable sector of videogames. The article also mentions that the reputation of gamers 20 years ago doesn't apply today simply due to people passing time by playing a quick game on their smartphone.
The article provided interesting information regarding the videogaming platform. It relates to the culture or identity problem that is occurring today. The videogame market has boomed, especially since the rapid growths of obesity in the 1980s. Although there isn't a direct relationship of the prevalence of videogames to obesity rates, it is a cause of concern. More and more kids are growing up playing videogames and not playing sports. This article shows the regions and places where videogames are prominent (North America and Europe). Specific countries such as China, USA, and Japan are at the top of videogame sales. This also demonstrates the certain human-environment interactions happening currently that can effect the rates of obesity, especially among children.
U.S. Solution to Combat Child Obesity
Coale, Dana. "Tackling Childhood Obesity with Fuel Up to Play 60." USDA. USDA, 21 Feb. 2017. Web. 08 June 2020. <https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2011/09/12/tackling-childhood-obesity-fuel-play-60>.
This article describes one very specific solution that can help with childhood obesity through exercise. The NFL teamed up with local elementary and middle schools to have the students engage in 60 minutes of activity to maintain a healthy body. The author also includes a website that students can track their progress and get rewarded through several hours of activity. Athletes will dedicate time to these schools and inform students on the benefits of staying active and eating nutritional meals. They also talk about limiting screen time especially gaming. The program is very successful within the schools that have teamed up with NFL.
Solutions to Prevent Child Obesity
The article provided great information based on the theme of place. It demonstrates how the United States is tackling obesity for children. Gathering this information is crucial because it shows how countries can prevent growing obesity rates. This article also explains the theme of human-environment interactions which also relates to concepts of identity and culture. It's important that children should go outside and play with their peers. It is very beneficial to in several aspects of health-physically, mentally, and socially. This dives deeper into how other regions can examine how the U.S. was successful in combating obesity in certain places. It is important for the Western World, because of their high rates of obesity, to consider simple solutions like limiting screen time and consuming nutritional foods.
Conclusion
Exploring Themes and Concepts
For this Story Map, I chose to cover obesity for Western countries and look at some specific examples in North America (specifically United States). Each section observed the main theme of region, comparing typical Western countries to developing countries. It also covered other themes and concepts such as places, human-environment interaction, culture, and identity. These additional themes and concepts helped analyze the main theme of region. Almost as if they were supporting arguments for the topic of obesity in the Western World. Some of these human-environment interactions were the causes of obesity such as eating out more frequently and ubiquitous entertainment especially in the developed countries. It also relates to culture because wealthier nations tend to pursue these actions compared to developing countries. The new shift in identity since the 1980s created a rapid growth in obesity in developed countries.
How Does Obesity Relate to Western World?
Perceived Western Countries
I included this image which was found earlier in the Story Map. Like mentioned before, this will act as a guideline to help analyze these relationships with obesity and classifying countries as a part of the Western World. When observing the initial map of obesity in adults, it was somewhat difficult to make a generalize claim that obese countries were a part of the Western World. However, there were many Western countries that had a great proportion of people who were obese. When observing some of the causes of obesity, there were some more patterns that were linked to developed countries. Especially when looking at the price spent on food consumed at home and money spent on videogames. Although there were some non-Western countries thrown into the mix, a good portion of these countries are typically considered Western. This created an opportunity to extend this topic and observe the rates of childhood obesity. When observing this map, we can easily tell that most to all Western countries are experiencing higher levels of childhood obesity. This number is generally increasing more for Western countries. They are able to afford more of a luxurious lifestyle compared to third-world countries. Although there isn't a clear connection right now between obesity and Western countries, eventually these Western countries will surpass developing countries in obesity rates.
What did I Learn
I was very surprised that I went with this route and tackled obesity and how it related to the Western World. I was surprised to learn that a Western country did not have the highest obesity rates. Currently, there are a good amount of European countries that don't have high obesity rates. However, through research, I was able to determine that most to all of these European countries are expected to have an obesity boom. These countries are experiencing better household incomes and more opportunities to entertainment platforms. I realized that childhood obesity has a strong relationship with the Western World. I also realized that countries with a higher child obesity rate will eventually experience an even greater rate of obesity in adults. This is very concerning because there are several consequences for the individual and society. It was intriguing to learn that a lack of sleep can really contribute to obesity in children. Overall, this was an interesting topic to explore and examine the different causes, effects, and solutions to this global health epidemic.
