Obesity levels have grown at astounding rates recently in America. Though there is not one defined explanation for this epidemic, there is a link between weight gain and convenience foods. There is probably not a day that goes by without driving past a
McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, or KFC. Each one of these restaurants prides itself with providing their customers with good food, fast. Yet this good food does not always mean nutritious food. However with a nation on-the-go, and deals like two burgers for 99 cents, fast food meals are sometimes impossible to pass up. Also, through over-consumption we tend to buy more than we need. If we do not want this excess food to go to waste, there is no other option but to eat it. The concentration on more driving and less physical activity may also have an impact on the obesity epidemic.
Affluenza is a condition resulting from over-consumption. This term refers to the unfulfilled feeling from ceaseless efforts of trying to keep up with the “Joneses”. Affluenza occurs when people try to reach the ultimate goal of living the American Dream by over-consumption. When these uncontrollable material desires fail to be satisfied, people grow unhappy with their lives. In extreme cases, people may rebel to get what they have been "programmed" to want by the advertisments. Affluenza can be considered a social disease brought on from commercialism, consumerism, and uncontrolled materialism. “Last year, Americans, who make up only five percent of the world's population, used nearly a third of its resources and produced almost half of its hazardous waste. Add overwork, personal stress, the erosion of family and community, skyrocketing debt, and the growing gap between rich and poor, and it's easy to understand why some people say that the American Dream is no bargain”(De Graaf).
Human life is tightly interwoven with nature, a connection often ignored. We forget that nature is the source for our very existence. Everything we have or own today has in some form come from nature itself. To measure our impact on the Earth, the University of British Columbia has created the ecological footprint theory. “The ecological footprint is the land that would be required on this planet to support our current lifestyle forever”(Wackernagel 117). This compares our current consumption levels with expected necessities. This enables us to point out shortfalls and establish changes that need to be made for the future.
Professor Uhl of Penn State University describes our ecological footprint as “the area of bioproductive land and sea necessary to produce all the things he or she consumes plus the space necessary to accommodate all the waste he or she generates”(Uhl 157). The average footprint for a U.S. citizen is twenty-four acres, as compared with the average Chinese citizens’ footprint of three and a half acres. This means if everyone lived as Americans we would need five Earth’s to sustain everyone’s needs. “In the last 200 years the United States has lost 50% of its wetlands, 90% of its northwestern old-growth forests, 99% of its tall grass prairie, and up to 490 species of native plants and animals with another 9,000 now at risk”(Wackernagel 120). With statistics like these, it is clear that our ecological footprint must be reduced in order to sustain future life on this planet. Given the current advance in technology, consumption levels, and exploding population, it is evident that serious lifestyle changes must occur.
“Our extraordinary rise in production and consumption of goods have in turn led to mass solid waste, hazardous waste, freshwater pollution, and greenhouse gases”(Uhl 166). Uhl defines our culture as the “consumer” class. This is a class that spends more time with things like shopping, paying bills, and caring about their possessions than with their families. We can think of this problem in terms of a can of Coke. We begin with the marketing tactics that obviously worked for us to possess the soft drink in the first place. Now we can pick apart the production that went into manufacturing this item. By taking the time to separate each component such as ingredients, aluminum, and formation, we can actually acknowledge how much work and energy goes into its production. Though most takes place in factories, by separating each step we can see the individual ecological effects for just one can of Coke.