Research Paper on:
America and Obesity

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
faced with the threat of being taken away from their families if the child does not lose weight and we have heard of people blaming the fast food industry, even  to the point of presenting lawsuits to the fast food industry, for their condition of being overweight. Most people believe that obesity is a problem and that people are clearly  at risk. However, most intelligent citizens of this country do not believe that we can blame the fast food industry, or even media influence, on our overweight condition. The truth  is that we are all responsible for our own health and most people in this country are intelligent enough to understand the simple basics of good eating habits. Bearing that  in mind the following paper examines the problem in this country and then discusses the problem as it relates to legal issues which have arisen concerning the fast food industry.  The Problem "The U.S. surgeon general said in a report last December that obesity kills an estimated 300,000 Americans each year and costs $117 billion in health-related costs"  (Sealey, 2002). Another author indicates that "Before 1994, diabetes in children was generally caused by a genetic disorder - only about 5 percent of childhood cases were obesity-related, or Type  2, diabetes. Today, according to the National Institutes of Health, Type 2 diabetes accounts for at least 30 percent of all new childhood cases of diabetes in this country" (Zinczenk,  2002). In addition, we note that "money spent to treat diabetes has skyrocketed, too. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that diabetes accounted for $2.6 billion in health  care costs in 1969," whereas "Todays number is an unbelievable $100 billion a year" (Zinczenk, 2002). From another perspective we note that "Six out of every 10 of us