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The United States is faced each year with increasing incidence of health issues, and this is of concern to individuals, the general population, and the entire country as health insurance, and governmental expenses on intervention keep rising. Health care givers are beginning to stress the need for prevention, as most of these health issues are preventable. About 30% of Americans meet the criteria for obesity (Yanovski, & Yanoski, 2011). This number keeps increasing, and the need for intervention is urgent. The purpose of this study is to highlight that many diseases are acquired from bad diets, and these diseases can be preventable by making healthy choices of food. Dornelas (2008), states that obesity is associated with many risks which include cardiovascular disease, sleep disorder, reflux disease, stress incontinence, and so many more. Decreasing the amount of calories can also have its negative consequence. Eating disorders like anorexia have been associated with the need to avoid being fat, and this possesses its own health risks. Anorexia nervosa increases the risk of osteoporosis, organ shut down, heart muscles shrinkage, kidneys failure and irreversible brain damage occurrence (Berk, 2010). Too much or too little of food consumption has numerous risk factors. The other side effect of these disorders is the psychological impact it has on sufferers.

When the body mass index (BMI) is not in the range of 18.5 to 25 kg/m2, then the person is said to be at risk for diseases. If it is below 18.5 kg/m2, the person is at risk for osteoporosis the thinning of bones which can lead to bone fracture. People with anorexia nervosa fall in this category after losing 25 to 50 percent of their body weight, and lack of food to the body can deprive it of nutrients that it needs to sustain itself. Anorexic individuals stop menstruating because the body needs about 15 percent of body fat in order to menstruate. Malnutrition causes brittle nails, pale skin, fine dark hair in the body and extreme sensitivity to cold temperature (Berk, 2010). If this continues without treatment, the organs start shutting down and can even lead to death. When BMI is more than 25 kg/m2, then the person is said to be overweight, and anything more than 30 kg/m2 is considered obesity. The more obese a person is, the greater the risk association with diseases such as type II diabetes mellitus, cardiac diseases and so on.

The body needs 6 to 11 servings of carbohydrates, 3 to 5 servings of vegetables, 2 to 4 servings of fruits, proteins, and oil, fats and sugars are needed sparingly daily. The average calorie that the body needs is 2000 Cal. This can be adjusted based on height, gender, and activity. Someone with a sedentary lifestyle needs less calorie while, an athlete or active lifestyle needs more. It is important for the general population to know the caloric contents of the food they consume. Carbohydrate and protein contain 4 Cal/gram respectively, while fats/oils contain 9 Cal/gram. The population consumes more fats/oils than needed daily, and one can see that fat is more than double of carbohydrate and protein combined. When the body has insufficient protein, it results in the disease called kwashiorkor, and lack of total caloric intake results in the disease called marasmus. While excess caloric intake causes high cholesterol, type II diabetes, arteriosclerosis, obesity and much more.

Many scholars have speculated the cause of obesity, as some researchers believe it has genetic origin, as well as environmental. The genetic origin deals with lack of fat receptors in the body, which slows the metabolism of fat. The environmental aspect deals with the type of diet individuals consume, and lack of physical activities. The environmental way to deal with this genetic defect is to further decrease the caloric intake, increase physical activities, education, and social support. A study done by Rooney, Mathiason and Schauberger (2011), examined the predictors of obesity in a birth cohort. A cohort of about 795 mothers and 802 children were followed during pregnancy for about 15 years. Characteristics of mothers and offspring were examined to find any predictor of obesity. They found that, gestational birth gain, weight gained during infancy, maternal smoking during pregnancy, and most especially maternal obesity is the strongest predicator of child’s obesity at all times. The result of this study might be due to genetic or due to the fact that the child has been exposed to the same kind of diet as the mother, and this eating pattern continues with the child.

Some theorists also argued that the cause of obesity is the lack of will power. Boutelle, et al. (2011), examined two treatments specified to reduce eating in the absence of hunger in overweight and obese children. Participants were overweight or obese, selected from schools, day care centers, and parents reported child’s eating in the absence of hunger in order to participate. The study was divided into two groups. The first group was the appetite awareness training group, parents were asked to use monitoring to increase sensitivity to hunger and satiety and the coping skills for the children to manage the urge to eat when not hungry. The second group was the cue exposure treatment food group. This is described as cravings, which is eating when not physically hungry. In this treatment, children learned strategies to recognize cravings and suppress it until urges diminished. The results showed that both treatments significantly decreased the urges of eating when not hungry, and as a result, weight decreased. This means that not every food consumed is due to hunger.

Parenting style can affect the way children eat. Hoerr, et al. (2009) study with 715 children and their parents (43% African American, 29% Hispanic and 28% White) with food intake in several groups were calculated from three days of dietary recall from 3 pm until bedtime. Hoerr et al. found that children from authoritarian families take more fruits and vegetables than children from indulgent or uninvolved parents. This shows the effect parenting can have on children. When parents’ influence are lacking, the children do not have a guide to doing the right things. Children need guidance to making the right choice in life; including choosing the right diet. This is why early education is important to begin from home.

Dornelas (2008) found that as obesity increased, so did referrals to weight loss surgery; because the need to reduce weight is urgent due to high risks associated with it such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancers, arteriosclerosis. Psychotherapists need to be trained in order to handle the underlying cause of obesity, which is entangled with other psychological problems. Obesity is a disease which needs to be treated, both physically and psychologically. Dong, Sanchez, and Price (2004), examined the relationship between obesity and depression in nuclear families among siblings and parents with a total number of 1730 European Americans, and 373 African Americans. Many variables were measured, and they found that depression was greater with an increase in body mass index (BMI), across gender and racial groups, even after controlling for the presence of chronic diseases. The offspring of depressed parents were also more likely to be depressed.

Furthermore, to predict type II diabetes in individuals at risk, the BMI, or the size of the waist can help do so. When fat accumulates centrally in the abdomen, the circulating fats can cause insulin resistance, as fat is less likely to cause insulin resistance when it accumulates in other parts of the body. Tsenkova, Carr, Schoeller, and Reff (2011) in perceived weight discrimination amplified the link between central adiposity and non-diabetic glycemic control and the result showed that hip-to-waist-ratio (central adipose deposition) has been significantly linked to significant increase in HbA1c (monitors long time diabetic control). It also shows that weight discrimination increases the psychosocial stressor and this increases the HbA1c as a result of stress. Decreasing weight can help eliminate type II diabetes.

The psychological impacts that poor diet has on individuals who suffer, are numerous. People with anorexia nervosa have body image distortion, they are always anxious, they have poor impulse control, are emotionally inhibited, and they avoid close relationship outside the family (Berk, 2010). Anorexic individuals do not see themselves as thin they see a different image of themselves in the mirror, as this shows that the disorder is not just physical, but psychological as well. Even though thin is…
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Ihab Salloum