Rhetorical Analysis: Is Obesity a Disease?

Aileen Tapia, Marcos Cobos, Cristian Orozco

University of Texas at El Paso

Rhetorical Analysis on Obesity

Is obesity a disease or not? Obesity has been a rapidly growing problem in the United States. It is a
problem that has been targeting the adult population and children as well. To make it clear, obesity is
different than being overweight. Obesity has not only become a medical issue, but a social issue as well.
This is because it not only impacts the individual, but the society as a whole. The American Society has
come up with some sort of standards that is what arising a big controversy whether obesity is a disease
or not.

Obesity is the condition of being obese or having an excess of amount of body fat. In the other hand,
being overweight is an excess amount of weight. The condition of being overweight and obese, are often
lead by similar factors, such as, bad nutrition, bad eating habits, low self-esteem, lack of exercise,
increased media use, drug abuse and rarely by genetics. But society itself are the ones that push these
factor due to bad time management mainly. Nowadays, families are preferring to buy fast-not nutritious
cheap food than preparing a complete healthy meal. To this growing problem, the government has started
to get involved.

Government associations such as the Food and Drug administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health
(NIH), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have arguments that affirm that obesity is a disease. While
other researches contradict this by saying that obesity is the result of the inactive lifestyle and unlike a
disease it does not impede the body of certain functions.

The big controversy towards obesity is exposed from both sides of the argument. Both have a completely
opposed view about obesity and people who are obese. In the pro side of the argument, there is a feeling
of pity if that is what we can call it. To this particular side, obesity is a disease that the person has no
control over. It mentions obesity to be as hereditable as the height (ProCon). Height is normal in a
person's genome. To counter this point, some big basketball players have short parents yet their size is
very large. Those who are obese do not lack the willpower to eat less or to exercise more. It is looked as
a predetermined thing, like saying that it is their destiny to be fat. It would make it sound too ironic to
some readers. Also, this side feels in a way compassion for two things that come with being obese. The
first thing would be life shortage; the supporting argument compares this disease to a person who
smokes. The life shortage could be from three to ten years, the same of a smoker but with the difference
that the obese one had no control over their weight when the smoker does over smoking. The second
thing would be the different diseases that come along with obesity such as, diabetes, hypertension, some
cancers, and other sort of diseases that affect the heart. The obese person cannot have a normal life like
others due to all the medical conditions.

Now the opposite point of view comes from Con. This side does not being give them any connection
with having diabetes or shortage in life, but there is no informational or scientific back up. It is more of a
state of opinion where it leans to that obesity is chosen. People are seen as irresponsible and that they
become obese due to bad or poor dietary decisions and not enough or none at all exercise. There is no
sympathy for the people who are trying to label obesity as a disease. Obesity is named a disease since it
is like a refuge for obese people to say it is in their genes and just cannot do anything about it. It
mentions that the obese has increased significantly both in numbers and importance in the years due to
different lifestyles (ProCon). It is also stated that, People today spend more time commuting, sitting in
front of a computer, watching television, playing video games, and generally exercising less (ProCon). In
a way makes the reader take a different approach of the situation. People before were not obese
because they did more physical work but now they are just sitting down most of their life time. So if
people before were not as obese as the ones today, there has to be something not in the genes of why
there are so many today. Now when it comes to the dictionary word of what a disease actually is, the
only connection to it is the excess in fat which is obesity itself, so to this side it is not a disease. Smokers
would not have lung cancer if they would not smoke. Drinkers would not have alcoholism or liver
problems if they did not drink. There are simple obvious metaphors conveyed to prove the point that,
Obesity can, in some cases, have positive health benefits such as increasing bone mass and reducing
the risk of osteoporosis (ProCon). You cannot call something a disease if it actually helps you in some
part of your health.

Typically, you are able to see the big picture if you have back up statements. Some shocking numbers
are striking our nation since, US males rank 5th out of 74 countries in obesity rates and US females rank
11th out of 114(ProCon). If we compare genders, the females tend to have greater numbers than men
and that is due to the body composition of the different bodies. More shocking numbers are that 1 in 10
deaths are accounted to obesity, more specifically 216,000 deaths and also obesity the third-leading risk
factor US adult deaths (ProCon). Well, how do you if you are obese or not? To calculate BMI or Body
Mass Index you divide a persons weight in kilograms over the square of his or her height in meters
(kg/m)2(ProCon). A healthy person should range from 18.5 to 24.9 BMI. An overweight person should
range from 25 to 29.9 BMI. And last, an obese person would be ranging 30 BMI or above. There are over
72 million obese people in United States but only 21% of Americans label obesity as a disease. Out of
those 72 million obese people, there is a $147 billion spending in obesity-related health condition, which
could have been spent in educational funding.

In conclusion, we can see that there are two strong arguments from both points of view of the issue. You
may believe what the government says, or maybe the researchers because they have proof of what they
are stating, but in the end, the most harmed people are the victims of obesity. No one would be able to
understand what have they gone through or where they will end up. But going back to our social issue,
the American society would not stop labeling people, which in this case would be calling obese people,
sick people. In the end its your relative opinion that matters.

References
Various. (2013, June 20). Is obesity a disease? Pro & Cons Arguements, 1.