PAA Rough Draft 1

Annaleigh Newall

March 30, 2012

Writ. 101 PAA Rough Draft 1

What are the effects of fast food on American obesity?

Living in the United States, we see it all around us. Obesity is everywhere we look. It’s near impossible to go a day without seeing somebody who is obese.  Even the people, who don’t look to be obese, are. Even me, at age 18 and dancing 20 hours a week and going to the gym regularly am considered to be obese. So what makes our country to the point that we are able to become obese so easily? When I first was choosing a topic, I had absolutely no idea what to write on. I wanted to be sure I would be able to find research on my topic, but still keep my reader engaged and have it pertain to everyone somehow. Obesity isn’t something that just pertains to one person, but to every single person in the United States. We have all seen the obese people and tell ourselves that we don’t want to end up that way. But what can be done to fix the problem? Why should you care? Honestly, look around you. Obesity is a serious problem and we need to do something about it.

When I was in high school, I took 3 years of sports medicine and exercise science classes, determined to somehow work that form of work into what I was going to do with my life. Once a year in the spring came the time every single person in the entire class dreaded; measuring BMI, taking skin folds, and finding out if we were or were not obese. Every year when we tested for obesity, the results were always surprising. Our football quarterback was obese, the track star was obese, even I, a dancer dancing 27 hours a week, was considered obese. The hardest part of this part of class was the self-esteem factors that came along with finding out that the majority of our class as obese. It was always hard to find out that we were in fact, not as healthy as we thought we were. Our teacher always had to give everyone the classis pep-talk about how it’s not what the scale says, but how we feel about ourselves and that we are eating a balanced diet with fruits and vegetables and feeling good about ourselves was what mattered most.