Taylor Profitt

Prof. Trotter

English 1201

15 March 2019

Annotated Bibliography

According to the CDC, 35.7% of young adults aged between 20 and 39 years are obese, along

with 42.8% of middle-aged adults aged 40-59 years, and 41.0% of older adults aged 60 and over. My

essay will attempt to answer the question of how things such as American culture, our degenerative food

system, electric media, and the price of foods are aiding in the rise of obesity in our country. How do

these things support obesity in our country? Are these things the reason that our country Is considered

the most overweight?

“Adult Obesity Causes & Consequences | Overweight & Obesity | CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/causes.html. Accessed on 15 March 2019

This source is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This source appears on the

CDC website and was published August 29 th 2017. The CDC is a United States federal agency under the

Department of Health and Human Services and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The main point of

this article is to inform about the causes and consequences about obesity. Also, to inform about

behaviors, community environment and other diseases and drugs that may lead to obesity and weight

gain. This article speaks on the serious diseases such as high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, and

mental illness. Also, medical costs rising due to the effects of obesity in America.

The purpose of this article is to make communities aware of obesity causes and consequences by

giving facts and information that the CDC has compiled in their studies. The audience the CDC is trying to

reach is all the American people affected by obesity and the people who simply want answers about
obesity. The content of this article was simply informational. The CDC’s job is to inform us of health

which they are doing in this article by informing us of all the complications that obesity is causing today

that are affecting the people.

This article was written in 2017 which makes it current for this information. The information can

help many understand obesity in a different light making it very relevant. The CDC is federal and has

much authority to be writing on this health topic. Many references our listed at the bottom of this page

with many accurate statistics that are used to support their information. He purpose is very obvious and

very important to the country today considering the high numbers of unhealthy weights.

I will use this source to help me in my research essay by compiling lots of statistics to back up my

arguments. I plan to use this information to open my essay with many facts about my topic to start my

essay strong.

Writers, Staff. “Why Are Americans Obese?” PublicHealth.org, PublicHealth.org, 2018,

www.publichealth.org/public-awareness/obesity/. Accessed 15 March 2019

Anju Abraham writes this article, Why Are People Obese? This article appears on the

PublicHealth.org site. The main point of this article is to inform people of obesity in America. The

causes and effect, the consequences of obesity, who is affected by obesity, and what we can do to about

the issue of obesity in America. This article speaks on how levels of sugar intake, calories, and screen

time and medical costs for obesity have skyrocketed from what they were in 1970. Also, lower amount of

physical activity in America as well as bigger portions. These things are declining health today.

The writer’s purpose of this article is to make us ware of the big differences across America that

are affecting the obesity rate. The audience attended for this article are the American people. This

article was written at a time when we are figuring out that at this rate, in 2030 half of Americans will be
obese. This makes this topic crucial to pay attention to the causes of this and get it under control before

it gets more out of hand than it already is.

Anju Abraham is a graduate student from Fresno State University with a master’s degree in

public health. She is currently completing a masters of science at Northeastern University. She quite

frequently uses CDC as a source in her article as well as many other credible sites and statistics.

I will use this information in my essay to show how the numbers of calorie intake and sugars

have rose substantially over the last few decades. Also, statistics of screen time in children and the

decrease of physical activity in Americans due to this.

“Food and Diet.” Obesity Prevention Source, 8 Apr. 2016, www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-

source/obesity-causes/diet-and-weight/. Accessed on 15 March 2019

The article titled “Food and Diet” was written by one of the writers from Harvard School of

Public Health. The main point of this article is to give awareness to proper calories, carb, and fat intake.

This article explores diet quality as well as quantity matter. Information Is give on food that make it

easier or harder to control weight, sugary beverages, alcohol, portion sizes, and chronic diseases caused

by weight gain.

The writer’s purpose is to inform. The intended audience is all people with questions or

interests in diet and nutrition. This is a very important article because today obesity and weight gain is

very widespread in America and only getting worse. This gives the article good content.

This article comes from writers and editors from Harvard University which makes it very credible

being an edu site. There are many references on the site that were used to come up with these answers

to their research. There are references for every topic spoke about in this article.
 I plan to use this source in my essay for some baseline information on diet and nutrition and

what is should be. What the correct calorie, carb, fat, protein, and sugar intake is and what is too much.

I will then go into facts about fast food intake to show how much these food corporations are hurting the

population with their unhealthy food choices.

Renee, Janet. “Leading Causes of Obesity in America.” LIVESTRONG.COM, Leaf Group,

www.livestrong.com/article/262489-the-leading-causes-of-obesity-in-america/. Accessed on 15

March 2019

Janet Renee writes this article titled “Leading Causes of Obesity in America”. This article

appeared on Livestrong.com. The main point of this article is to inform people about the causes of

obesity in America. This article goes in to discuss factors such as exposure to fast food ads, environment,

socioeconomic status, genetic predisposition, overeating and unhealthy snacking influencing

weight. This article covers the price difference of healthy and unhealthy foods on the market and how

that is too affecting the food choices in America.

The writer’s purpose is to bring light to the reasons that obesity is high in America by pointing

out things like fast food. The attended audience is Americans. This was written at a time today in our

lives that obesity numbers are at their highest and this makes this article very logical and important to its

audience.

The Livestrong Foundation is a United States nonprofit organization that provides support for

people affected by cancer. The foundation, based in Austin, Texas, was established in 1997. This article

uses resources including resources from the CDC, the nation’s health protection agency.

I will use this article to help back up my argument that fast food is a big issue in the obesity

epidemic today. I will also use this information to bring awareness of how food prices are also affecting
Americans eating habits along with the information of the many diseases that can come from the

consumption of these fast food meals.

Healthy Communities: What Local Governments Can Do To Reduce and Prevent Obesity,

www.cdc.gov/obesity/downloads/CDC_Healthy_Communities.pdf.

This article produced by the CDC was published on their website, Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention. This article goes into detail with maps showing the increase of obesity rates over 20% in

each state from 1990 to 2009. The main point of this article is to inform the government and civilians

that there are many things the government itself can do to prevent and reduce obesity in our country.

The writer’s purpose is to inform. The intended audience is all government and American

people. This article was written at a time that obesity was on the rise. At the time, and today, this article

is very relevant to the major issue we have in our country.

The CDC is a very credible source for almost anything to do with disease or health and safety.

This PDF has many references listed at the end of the slides to back up the information they have

compiled. This information is relevant to the people of America as we go through this time of having

almost 40% of our population struggling with obesity.

I will use this information in my essay to point out that there are many things the government

can do to help this epidemic. It seems the government is not trying to reduce obesity at all today. I will

also explain the strategies that can be put forward in our country to prevent children from early

childhood obesity.

Powell, Lisa M, and Frank J Chaloupka. “Food Prices and Obesity: Evidence and Policy Implications for

Taxes and Subsidies.” The Milbank Quarterly, Blackwell Publishing Inc, Mar. 2009,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2879182/.
 This article written by Lisa Powell and Frank Chaloupka, was published on the National Center for

Biotechnology Information’s website. The main point of this article was to show research on the link of

food prices in communities and their obese/overweight rates. This article examines whether altering the

cost of unhealthy, energy-dense foods, compared with healthy, less-dense foods through the use of fiscal

pricing would, in fact, change the consumption and overall diet enough to significantly reduce peoples

weight outcomes. Another key issue examined was the effect of food and restaurant prices on weight

outcomes.

The audience intended for this article seems to be restaurants, schools, government officials,

and the American people. This article talks about the prices of foods altering the peoples’ food choices.

Such as, schools and restaurants tend to price their salads more than their unhealthy, energy-dense

foods causing people to have to buy the less expensive, unhealthy choice. This was a problem when this

article was written as it still is today.

The writer’s make themselves very credible as they use many references and links throughout

their whole article. Many statistics are also used with links to their original finders. food prices are a

huge issue with the obesity epidemic and this makes this information very relative.

I will use this information in my essay to form an argument about food prices. This is one of my

main points in the underlying reasons for obesity in the country. I will use statistics from the article to

support my claims of pricing being the cause of unhealthy food choices.

Aalai, Azadeh. “Top Five Ways American Culture Is Making You Fat.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers,

2012, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-first-impression/201210/top-five-ways-american-

culture-is-making-you-fat.

Azadeh Aalai wrote this blog on October 21 2012 and was published on the site Psychology

Today. The main point of this blog was to point out some relevant issues linked with obesity, mainly on
the topic of American Culture. American culture is one of the three main reasons I came up with that

may be causing Americas obesity epidemic. This blog goes into talking about access to things like ads on

TV always telling us to go out and try the new McDonald’s value meal or the new Starbucks drink that

has 800 plus calories in it. Also, the convenience of fast food restaurants with little to no healthy choice

menu options.

The writer’s purpose is to make people aware of what the American culture is doing to our

health. Fast food, the “on-the-go” food choices we make because we are so determined to save time.

All the children that are constantly connected to a gadget and almost never outside and being active,

causing more bad food choices such as grabbing a bag of chips or something that won’t interrupt game

time. At this time, the country is dealing with all these problems, this makes this a very relevant blog.

The writer is Azadeh Aalai, a professor of psychology at the Queensborough Community College

in New York. She does use references in this blog of where she got some of her information from. This is

a very relevant page considering the current obesity epidemic. Psychology today has many excellent

blogs and articles and I think this helps the reliability of this blog.

I do realize a blog is not the best source. On the other hand, I do have many reliable sources

about this topic of American culture having a part in obesity today. I will only use this information to

have some more content along with the facts of this topic. I think there is a lot of interesting issues that

are brought forward that I will be able to use effectively for my argument.