Center for Disease Control: The Obesity Epidemic

A short video about the obesity epidemic from the CDC and what measures we can take as Americans in order to protect ourselves from the common problems we face with obesity. The video illustrates many common factors that lead to obesity and what we can do to ensure that we are taking the right paths to living a healthier lifestyle.
I really like this video as it illustrates many of the key problems we face in todays society in regards to obesity and I also agree with many of the programs that the State and Federal Government are trying to establish to ensure we are taking the right paths to a healthier lifestyle.

CBS News-Heart Attack Grill

Owner John Basso of the heart Attack grill boasts that his hamburgers are to die for, literally as the spokesperson for the Heart Attack Grill, Blair River, 27 passed away from Pneumonia. Although Blair weighed in a whopping 575 pounds, he was not ashamed of being morbidly obese. With the menu playing host to four burgers named the bypass, double bypass, triple bypass, and quadruple bypass burger which is an 8,000 calorie burger, it is obvious that he does not hide the fact that he is proud of his establishment.

In this youtube video from CBS, we see that the owner Mr. Basso uses an unorthodox method of advertising stating that his "burgers are to die for" and posting signs throughout the restaurant "enter at your own risk". Clearly he is making money off of Americas insatiable appetite for gluttony, but with the openings of two other restaurants, one in Las Vegas and the other in Dallas it is easy too see that perhaps Americans are becoming more accepting of obesity in society as his establishments are doing just fine.

Therefore I find myself asking the same question constantly every time I turn on the television, and that is are we as Americans becoming more accepting of obesity in society as more and more Americans are becoming obese every year? Now I don't put any blame on Mr. Basso because he found an ingenious method of advertising his restaurant that is making him money. I believe that he is also aware of how accepting Americans are of the obesity epidemic. Obesity is a silent killer that will kill you directly but will lead to other complications that ultimately will kill you.

Xtranormal Video of Bob the Drinker

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/13040398/bob-the-drinker

My xtranormal video of Bob for Dr. Millers Sociology class. A short one minute video of Bob who like to eat McDonald's and drink beers. He has recently put on some weight and would like to be able to fit back into his old pants. This is my first time using this website so please do not take it seriously.

NIH Expert Warns Controversial Anti-Obesity Ads Pose Risks The campaign couples unflattering photos of children with health warnings. By Rachael Levy

http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2012/02/09/atlanta_anti_child_obesity_campaign_risks_stigma.html

A campaign to end the controversial anti-childhood obesity campaign appears to becoming to an end as many activist see it as more of a stigma as it poses a risk to a child's psychological health for those children who are obese.
Unfortunately I disagree with the activist because obesity is very big problem in the United States and its becoming more and more acceptable in our everyday lives. I agree that obesity can be a touchy subject, but I believe that more and more Americans are accepting the fact that there is nothing wrong with being overweight, which is obviously not true. In today's media we see television shows like Man vs. Food, where Americans are indulging their glutenous ways, therefore I believe it is becoming more of an accepted problem within society.  I think ads like this will make children and parents aware that it's not socially acceptable to be overweight or obese, and that as parents they must take responsibility for their actions.

The Obesity Epidemic

http://www.obesity.org/news-center/the-obesity-epidemic.htm

Obesity is epidemic in the United States. In this video, experts from the CDC including TOS member and former president, Dr. William Dietz, describe the complex societal, cultural, and economic factors behind the rising problem of obesity in this country.

Obesity Could Be Infectious

http://news.yahoo.com/obesity-could-infectious-144803293.html

A short Yahoo article on a recent study in mice on how obesity can be infectious.

Obesity and Inequality By William Underhill

In Newsweek Magazine

What makes Americans so fat? Don't blame the doughnuts. That extra heft could be symptomatic of a malaise prevalent in all the world's least equal societies. According to "The Spirit Level," a new book by British academics Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, a slew of social woes—from drug abuse to obesity and mental illness—can be tied directly to the width of a nation's income gap.

The evidence for the link is compelling. Obesity is six times more common in America, where the wealth gap is among the highest in the developed world, than in Japan at the opposite end of the inequality scale. And teenage birthrates in Britain are at least five times higher than in the more egalitarian Netherlands.

The explanation lies in a highly evolved reaction to low status, which shows itself in misery, violence or poor self-esteem. Weight, in particular, has long been a marker of socio-economic clout, and there's an unusually close match between obesity in women and their society's wealth gap. But it's not only the poor who suffer in unequal societies; higher incidences of mental illness, for example, affect all classes.

Still, with diagnosis comes the chance for a cure. "This suddenly gives us a handle on the psychosocial well-being of whole populations," says Wilkinson. Individuals should cut down on calories; meanwhile, governments should seek a slimmer wealth gap.

Excess Deaths Due to Inequality

A 2009 study in the British Medical Journal attempted to quantify the number of deaths that could be attributed to economic inequality among the 30 rich countries that make up the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The researchers found an association between greater inequality and a higher overall death rate in countries where inequality runs relatively high.

What constitutes “relatively high” inequality? To answer this question, the researchers ranked the 30 OECD countries in order of their “Gini index,” a standard metric that economists use to describe the level of inequality in a population. Ginis can run from 0.0 to 1.0, with higher numbers indicating greater inequality.

The most equal country in the OECD, Denmark, has a Gini of 0.225. The United States ranks as the fourth-most unequal country, with a Gini of 0.357, following only Mexico, Turkey, and Poland. The median Gini among OECD nations, 0.3, became the reference point against which researchers compared countries and their death rates.

The study concluded that almost 884,000 excess deaths per year in the United States could be attributed to the high level of income inequality in the U.S. In other words, if the Gini in the United States were 0.3 instead of 0.357, we would see nearly 884,000 fewer deaths per year.

A short video from PBS NEWSHOUR of how unequal the wealth is in the United States.