Obesity

What are the possibilities of being obese due to the fast food? Case of KFC in Aktobe.
3 014 words.

Introduction
Obesity is the problem where a person has so much body fat that can be negative for their health.
If men’s or women’s weight bigger than it should be then he or she would be considered as
obese people. World Health Organization provides us with some facts which are considered to be
a crucial statistics in the world. Exactly, in 2014 over the 1.9 billion adults, 18 years and older,
were overweight. Also 41 million kids who are under 5 year were overweight in the same year.
From this people almost 600 million were obese (WHO, 2016). However, they think that such
problem is preventable. So, that’s why, considering that this very serious problem, this research
will search ways of solving issue of being obese. The problem of being overweight or obese is
also significant in Kazakhstan. There are many organisations that help to prevent this problem,
such as like Kazakh Academy of Nutrition. Our government is helping by providing with some
money or apparatus. This issue is still relevant because according to CNBC (2016) the U.S
obesity continues to worsen: 40 percent of U.S women are obese, and American teenagers are
also continuing to put on weight. Scientists consider that by 2030 the amount of obese people in
America will increase to 4 percent. But even they don’t know why obesity continues to become
worse and worse. The only thing that motivated me to choose this topic is my interest. I mean
it’s very interesting to observe, to research about this kind of topics. Also it’s typical but very
complex problem. That’s why I decided to choose this issue. As for my further application, I
think it would be useful for scientists and people who are obese because they can solve this
issue. Also in near future people would use it to warn others.
Aim
The purpose of this research to identify the causes of being obese and suggest possible solutions
for this problem. Moreover, by some statistical data, do conclusions. This project will answer to
these main questions:
How many people are obese in our city?
How they tackling with this problem?
Why it is so serious disease in our world?
How we can treat this kind of disease?
Hoping to that the research will answer to these questions, I will do the research project by using
primary research method because it is the best solution of finding answer to main questions of
the aim.
Methods
There were included different kinds of methods in the research project. It made to get more
accurate data. Some data were biased or not credible. So, that’s why I have checked all the data
with RAVEN.
First of all, there were gained a lot of information about the issue. Obesity is very complex
problem, so there were a lot of available data. However, some information was outdated. Some
sources were not credible, while others had loads of needless information which would make the
project biased and inaccurately. Therefore, secondary research was conducted from credible
sources. For example, World Health Organization has considered to be a one of the most reliable
sources because of their reputation. This organization had an official site that included a lot of
information about obesity. Another example of credible source can be NHLBI, which also has
good collected data about the issue. So, there is no bias information entered to the data. The
research needed the both of research methods, because quantitative methods are needed to
collect statistical data and plot some graphs or make pie charts and others. Moreover, there was
used qualitative method to collect information about my research question.
Comparing the secondary research and primary research methods. The secondary research
method is more available than primary research because in primary research you have to find an
expert and ask him while in secondary you just surf the internet. But primary research method is
more effective and it can give you an exact answer that you want. Because information in
internet can be not reliable and trustworthy so by face to face interview you can get more
detailed information on the topic. The primary research method gave me a lot of useful
information about my topic and by the conducted survey i have found interesting things but by
the secondary research i have found more data than by primary but most of them are biased and
not trustworthy.
There were used 3 types of methods, exactly, observation, face-to-face interview and survey.
Survey needed to collect statistical data. I had got survey from people in Aktobe who are obese.
Also, I observed them and took interview from doctors and people who are suffering from this
disease. The reason why I have chosen him was they are the only people who can gave me the
answer that I need.
Sample size for interview was only 6. Each interview took about 10 minutes. The extra questions
were created if answer was not satisfied. Moreover, the survey was got from 50 people and there
was observed 10 people.
There were some limitations that prevented to get fully described answers. For example, the
number of people was small while conducting the survey because many people do not wanted to
take survey or some of them was not able to answer to them. Also, the experts have not so much
time to give an interview so the answers were not so well described and that’s why there were
some incorrect countings and not enough information about the topic.

Context
Obesity is the condition of being fat or overweight, increased body weight caused by excessive
accumulation of fat (Mifflin, 2002). Obesity classified as having a Body Mass Index 30 or
greater. BMI is a tool used to measure obesity.
The recent research showed that many people are suffering from this disease and it’s increasing
year by year (World Health Organization, 2016). According to the report of the Commission on
Ending Childhood Obesity, there are “6 recommendations to address the obesogenic
environment and critical periods in the life course to tackle childhood obesity. The Assembly
requested the Director-General to develop an implementation plan to guide further action”
(World Health Assembly, 2016). So, from this, we can see that there is a real problem which has
to be solved. There is a responsibility for individuals, local and international organizations and
governments.
This problem also affects Kazakhstan. For example, more than 55% of Kazakhstani people
suffer from this disease (Kazakh Academy of Nutrition (KAN), n.d). If we descry this problem
by gender then in our country this issue mostly affects men than women. Studies by KAN (2012)
showed that 30.6% of women and 36.8% of men in Kazakhstan are overweight. However, in
1995 research showed that women suffer from obesity more than men, exactly, 47% of females
and 42% of males were obese at that time. We can see that almost in 20 years the numbers of
people who are suffering from this disease is decreasing, so it means that organizations are
taking actions but this issue is still relevant.
This problem can be viewed from a number of different perspectives such as social, economical
and biological. It is stated that environment affects obesity in different ways. Some of them can
treat it while others can cause obesity. It’s very unusual so even doctors cannot explain it.
However, there are some certain theories about the influence of people’s races on their physical
appearance including obesity. It means that obesity depends on person’s race. The studies that
have been done by American Journal of Public Health showed that black people have more
obesity rate than white people, exactly, black people have 51% and white people have 21%,
respectively(Caprio, Daniels, Drewnowski, Kaufman, Palinkas, Rosenbloom and
Schwimmer,2008). So, that shows that African people have more possibility to become obese,
and we can’t go against nature. That’s why doctors are still searching for the solutions to this
problem.
The next perspective is economical perspective. Many international organizations and
governments invest a lot of money to treat the obesity. However, these investments are not
acquitted because obesity is damaging the economy of many developed countries. For instance,
in U.S, the government invested $315.8 billion in 2010 to tackle the problem of obesity; it is
about - $3508 for each obese person. All chronic diseases such as obesity or cancer are very
expensive because the apparatus that are used for treatment are also expensive. In other words,
apparatus met very rarely. So, it costs thousands, even billions of dollars (Stilwell,
2015). According to Jackson (2008), based on the strategy Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives, the
British government invested almost $600 million in the treatment of obese children.
Moreover, there is a social perspective on this issue. Obesity is perceived as a stigma in society.
Obese people feel themselves very shy and unconfident because healthy people can bully them.
What is more, obese people are not so requested in many prestigious jobs. It also has an effect on
children’s psychology. For example, as the consequences of negative bias, people who are not
obese can attribute characteristics to overweight peers including mean, stupid, ugly. That’s why
obese people can’t feel themselves happy and they become less sociable (abkassa, 2010).
Considering all perspectives, we can say that this issue is very serious because it has bad effects
on the economy, on the psychology of people and on society. According to National Heart,
Lung, and Blood Institute (2013), the main causes of obesity are:
● Lack of energy balance
● Inactive lifestyle
● Environment
● Emotional factors
● Smoking
● Lack of sleep
● Age
● Male and female(gender)
It is evident that obesity is a serious issue that affects people of different age, nationality, race
and social status. Based on the past research, the current study aims at finding better solutions for
obesity by investigating the public opinion on this issue and the perspective of the specialists.

Results
The expert’s views on topic obesity: reasons and causes of being obese. The interviews and
survey were very significant because opinions of some people were quite different from the
information which is in internet and which I described it in Context part. From the collected data,
I noticed that they are aware of this problem, so, many of them says that the main reason of
being obese is not doing sport. The other key point is that most of people who are usually be
obese is teens. Also there are some risks of increasing this rate in our city because of opening
KFC but some of the experts do not worry about this because they say that it would good for our
city. By summarizing the answers of the interviewees, I found that their views on this topic are
similar to each other’s.
The second question was about opening of KFC in our city. 2 of 5 people answered that they
were not mind to descent to KFC because it’s one of the most popular franchise in the world so
they want to taste the foods but other 3 persons think that it’s not good to open one more fast
food restaurant because it would increase the risk of being obese.
The next question was about seriousness of this problem in our city. They all answered that this
problem is not so serious in our city because the number of people who came with obesity to
medical observation is small. Following this, i had fifth question which was about their attitudes
about towards obese people. They all answered that they don’t eschew from them and talking
normally with them like with other normal people. Someone said that it’s always interesting to
interact with all kind of people. It doesn’t matter how the person is look like. The main thing that
he is a human and despite that he or she overweight, person can be very interesting. Others said
that it can be discrimination to avoid of talking with them and hating, kidding them.
The pre-last question was about actions that have to be taken from government. They all said that
government should decrease the number of fast food restaurants and make more expensive. Also,
government should do investments for medicine to treat this disease.
As for survey, there were 7 questions and over 60 answers for each question. The first question
was about how much often do people eat fast food. Almost 5% of people eat fast food every day.
It means that the index is very good because most people eat fast food very rare so it can prevent
him to be obese or decrease the rate of obesity.
The next question was about doing exercises per week. Almost half of people do exercises one or
two times. It shows that more of people active. To be exact, almost 70% of people have active
style. While only 30% of people have sedentary life style.
To concluding all the results, we can say that we are ready to do conclusions and plot barcharts
lying on this information. It let us to result our research project and give specific answers for the
questions.

Conclusion
The following text will include answers for my aims’ questions.
● How many people are obese in our city?
By doing many researches and investigatings, I found that there are only some people who are
obese, however still there is a risk of increasing of this index. To be exact, almost 10% of
citizens are suffering from obesity.
● How they tackling with this problem?
The local people do everything to prevent this kind of disease. From my research, i can say that
they usually do some exercises in the morning, and eat more vegetables and fruits rather than fast
foods. Moreover, the popular way among females is diet. Of course, diet can be effective to treat
obesity but it has also negative effects on our body.
● Why it is so serious disease in our world?
Because nowadays, the globalization effects on different spheres. So, one of them is food. The
spreading of fast food restaurants went very fast because of globalization. So, we can say that
globalization has itself bad effects, that’s why the number of people who eat fast food and
become obese is increased. Also, doctors cannot treat this disease completely, so, they just
suggest ways of preventing the obesity.
● How we can treat this kind of disease?
I have found that doctors will use chemical elements to treat obesity. The one of big reasons why
people become obese is that they have slower metabolism. Metabolism is the exchanging of
things. So, using chemical elements they can make faster metabolism and all fat can go out.
Concluding all these things i can say that the all the aim’s questions were provided with full
answers. Also, the obesity remains as one of the serious diseases in the world. But by the
research project we have found the possible solution. In other words, I have found how to treat
this disease.

Evaluation
By generalizing the results, I can say that my research project was successfully and completely
finished. All research questions have described answers with arguments and evidences. The all
data that I have obtained in secondary research were from reliable sources, for example NHLBI
(Natural Health, Lung And Blood Institute), WHO (World Health Organization). All these
sources were checked by RAVEN and it is determined that the credibility of the sources is in
high-level. Moreover, these kinds of sources have good authority, and trustworthy information
that are not biased.
Face to face interview helped me to get more exact information about my topic because
endocrinologists only people who know about obesity and they gave extended answers and said
that the rate of being obese is not big as comparison with US or other countries of Europe.
For me the experts’ views were very crucial that’s why I concluded that the problem is not
serious in our city but connected with the opening of KFC, the rate can be changed because
every people in our city want to go there and taste the fast foods because it is one of the popular
franchises in the world and everyone wants to get there.
However, before the researching i thought that the rate of obesity is big and its seriousness also.
But while doing face to face interviews and survey i have noticed that the number of people who
are suffering from obesity is small. That’s why my point of view about this problem has changed
however we cannot deny that there are some risks of increasing the rate of being obese.
I think that my research will have good evaluation because the research project that I have did is
based on the opinions of experts and the sources were reliable. The most important thing is that
research project was accomplished.

Further research
Once you have finished the research project, to your mind comes a lot of ideas to spread this
topic. Obesity is itself very complex topic. So, to develop and to investigate properly this kind of
topic, we should suggest new research question or new idea. The research question that I have
chosen was “What are the possibilities of being obese?”. So, in this topic I have described the
issue and the possible solutions for this. Now, to spread this topic, I have to create a new idea
that I want to know more about this topic.
I think, it would be good to investigate about regulation of metabolism because this is the main
thing why the people become obese. Also, to do research we have to choose qualitative method
because by this method we can take much more exact information. The future work will include
the general information about the metabolism and this will help to understand the meaning and
purpose of the project. So, that research work will help to find the best answer for my research
project. That's why it is the best alternative variant of doing project work. This is the one of the
ideas of spreading my topic about obesity.

References
Anonymous(2013). National Heart, Lung and Blood institute. Why Obesity Is a Health Problem.
Retrieved from
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/wecan/healthy-weight basics/obesity.htm
Anonymous(2016). World Health Organization. Obesity and overweight. Retrieved from
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/
Anonymous(2009). CDC. Differences in Prevalence of Obesity Among Black, White, and
Hispanic Adults --- United States, 2006—2008. Retrieved from
 https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5827a2.htm
Anonymous(2008). HM Government. Healthy weight, Healthy lives: a cross-government
strategy for England. Retrieved from
https://extranet.who.int/nutrition/gina/sites/default/files/GBR%202008%20Healthy%20Weight%
2C%20Healthy%20Lives-%20A%20Cross-Government%20Strategy%20for%20England.pdf
Anonymous(n.d). Public Health. Why are Americans obese? Retrieved from
http://www.publichealth.org/public-awareness/obesity/
Gibbons(2013). National Heart, Lung and Blood institute. Causes. Retrieved from
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/obe/causes
Kassennova(2013). Tengri news. 55% in Kazakhstan are overweight. Retrieved from
https://en.tengrinews.kz/health/55-in-Kazakhstan-are-overweight-22577/
MAGGIE FOX(2016). NBC. America’s Obesity Epidemic Hits a New High. Retrieved from
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/america-s-obesity-epidemic-hits-new-
high-n587251
Stilwell(2015). Bloomberg. Obesity is hurting the U.S economy in surprising ways. Retrieved
from
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-05/american-economy-has-a-
weight-problem-as-costs-of-obesity-mount