Which is the bigger problem? Obesity, or aneorexia?

Question

Apparently the pressure is on young women everywhere that they have to be as skinny as inhumanly possible to be sexy, but end up being undesirable because they just end up looking dead. Conversely, being fat is also nothing to be ashamed about, because most of it is "genetic" anyway, and there's no point in trying to change who you are (even if that means succumbing to diabetes). Which is worse; being too skinny or being too fat?

Answer 1

Today, 64.5 percent of adult Americans (about 127 million) are categorized as being overweight or obese. Each year, obesity causes at least 300,000 excess deaths in the U.S., and healthcare costs of American adults with obesity amount to approximately $100 billion.

Recent studies on the epidemiology of anorexia have suggested an incidence of between 8 and 13 cases per 100,000 persons per year and an average prevalence of 0.3% using strict criteria for diagnosis. These studies also confirm the view that the condition largely affects young adolescent females, with females aged between 15 and 19 making up 40% of all cases. Furthermore, the majority of cases are unlikely to be in contact with mental health services.

While it was once thought that obesity was largely due to genes, it is not the case so much today. Many people are eating for more reasons than sustaining hunger; psychological or mental disorders play a part, lack of activity, inadequate nutrients replace the nutritional value the body needs (i.e., fat burgers, fried foods, etc.).

With so few reporting their anorexic condition to the medical field, it is difficult to gauge numbers that would be in comparison to obesity to measure hospital costs, etc.

Personally, I think both conditions are problematic but would say that obesity is a bigger problem due to the NUMBER of individuals it has plagued. WIth insufficient data to compare, it seems though, unlikely, that there are that many suffering from anorexia (by viewing physical appearance) than that of obese people (there seem to be more and more waddling around these days - and they are younger than before).

Answer 2

well it depends on how overweight you are... if its only 10-30lbs.. its okay... but if its over 60 lbs overweight then its a problem... but if ure only 10-30 its okay.. but anerexia its still bad dont do it!