Obesity

Catalog description

This course considers the now global problem of obesity from biological, psychological and sociological perspectives. Since the 1970s there has been a rapid increase in the incidence of overweight and obese individuals in the United States with 65 percent of adults now overweight. Childhood obesity rates have tripled in the last 20 years, producing the first generation of Americans who are predicted to have a shorter life span than their parents. The obesity epidemic is widely acknowledged in the United States, but in the past two decades, this problem has also spread to developing countries as they accelerate their nutrition transition to more mass-produced and processed foods. The roles of government and business are explored, in influencing access to foods and in defining obesity vs. health. The study of this now global problem is relevant from a personal health perspective as well as a political and economic perspective. Individuals empowered with knowledge can modify their own food environments and that of their children. A well-educated populace may wish to support initiatives to make progress on this societal problem to avoid economic losses in productivity and healthcare costs that will compromise America’s competitiveness.