Obesity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Obesity - Essay Example This paper seeks to discuss the definition and measurement of obesity, the current state of obesity among high school students, the causes, and the possible measures that can be taken to address the issue. The nature of obesity makes it difficult to clearly define the condition. However, most researchers define obesity as the presence of excessive fat in the body that is characterized by the presence of adipose tissue. Using the above definition, presence of 30% fat in females was considered as obese while for males, presence of 25% fat in the body was considered obese. The Body Mass Index (BMI) is the most common tool used to measure obesity. The BMI is the ratio of an individual’s weight in kilograms to the square of their height in meters. The BMI percentiles are used together with a growth chart to assess levels of obesity among various age groups. Currently, the rate of obesity among high school students stands at 13.7% while the number of overweight students is 16.6% of the total population of high school students in the US. On the boys’ category, the rate of obesity among white American students stands at 16.5%. The rate is slightly higher among Latin American students whose figure stands at 19.0%. However, this rate for African American students with this group’s figure recorded as 14.8%. On the girls’ category, 9.7% of white American students are obese while the figure for Latin American students increases slightly and is recorded at 11.4%. African American students at 16.7% recorded the highest rate of obesity for this category. According to these statistics, African American girls have the highest rate of obesity among high school students white American girls have the lowest rate. Latin American boys have the highest rate among boys. The above statistics indicate that obesity is most prevalent among African American students. White Americans have the smallest rate of