Obesity

Obesity has become a large and dark reality since capitalization. I will use the tools of the sociological imagination template, Is analyzing it as a risk issue in children and adolescents by employing historical factors, cultural factors, structural factors and lastly critiquing it. These four features will then help provide a holistic analysis of this major issue from a sociological angle.The World Health Organisation recognizes obesity as a disease that has spread globally over the last 25 years approximately.
It has only become a major issue in recent times, due to its rise and frequency in adults as well as children. The issue of being overweight has specifically risen since major fast-food restaurant franchises became incorporated and rapidly started expanding on a global level. In relatively recent history, being overweight has been looked down upon as a character flaw and as a source of amusement through social ridicule; but this has not always been the case. Large people in a lot of cultures and in different time periods have been viewed as symbols of prosperity and wealth.
This last perception of the correlation between wealth and prosperity with obesity is not surprising; as the majority of the population at that time were unaware of the health risks and believed being large meant you were well-fed and rich enough to afford the same. Currently, in some African cultures – obesity is still looked upon as a sign of being prosperous and not a victim of malnutrition. This perception exists in a few tribes wherein food is scarce and hence being overweight gives rise to the old perception of prosperity.
Insurance companies since the 1940s have noticed a definite link between being overweight and shorter life spans. In 1996, the Body Mass Index was introduced wherein the classification and typologies of being obese was explored. The BMI classifies people on the basis of age, sex and height to measure levels of obesity. Currently 20-25% of children and adolescents in Australia are obese wherein 4.9% of boys and 5.4% of girls are obese. According to a research carried out by the WHO, a significant number of subjects reported a family history of hypertension (8.0%), obesity (5.4%), diabetes (3.3%) and stroke (1.4%), with 14.6% of participants reporting any of these NCDs.