Essay Obesity: Obesity and Gastric Band Surgery

Submitted By aneesah144
Words: 527
Pages: 3

In the United States 300,000 deaths per year are related to obesity
The direct cost of obesity to the NHS is 4.3 billion and the figure is set to double by 2050
Gastric band surgery costs £7,000 the same as a heart bypass
Some Cancer and Alzheimer’s patients are being denied treatment because tax payers money is going towards people who are obese
Some people actually exercise instead of going to the hospital and getting surgery
“there there you just eat what you want and someone else will fix it for you”
Liposuction has been performed on the NHS
“Britain is the fat capital of Europe” according to research done by the university of Madrid
400,000 people die in the EU because of obesity
We need to prioritise who gets treated because we are in an economic recession
We understand that you should be given information- awareness should be raised.

Disease is defined as any impairment of normal physiological function affecting all or part of a human. In relation to this definition, how can it be possibly argued that obesity is a disease? Obesity happens not because of a malfunction in the body, but because of the conversion of fat into calories- an entirely normal process. Classing it as a disease encourages sympathy for obese people- and so much sympathy that they may start to believe that they deserve to be treated, even though they are the ones choosing to eat excessive & unhealthy amounts of food. It removes their own personal responsibility of trying to reduce their weight. The American Medical Association voted to classify obesity as a disease. As a result of this- 64% of Americans are now classified as unhealthy. It’s morally wrong to say that all obese people are sick and should be treated as a substantial amount of the people classed as 'obese' are perfectly healthy. It should therefore be understood that obesity is not a disease- it is a lifestyle choice.

The genetic excuse for obesity is a total myth. Research proves that even those who have the highest risk