Casual arguments are claims that examine the causes of an effect, using analogies, hypotheses, and conclusions of research. Obesity is a difficult subject to examine at the start because exactly what being “obese” means must be discovered–it is based on the Body Mass Index that measures fat; yet at what point is someone fat? If they have a BMI of a certain number that is deemed fat, how is that certain point a designation of obesity? Obviously, someone grossly overweight, with visible physical ailments resulting from being too fat, can be pointed out as such. But in our society, there is a much greater emphasis on obesity than there is the other side–being underweight. Why aren’t there measurements for being slightly underweight, moderately underweight, excessively underweight, and clinically underweight? At what point in the continuum is “obese” what it claims to be?

First off, women are supposed to have more body fat than men, because they bear children. In America, however, it’s quite opposite, and women are supposed to be skinny. This sickens me because 1) That means girls will try to be skinner, causing various body image issues, and not enjoying themselves, and 2) Because ultra-skinny supermodels are incredibly unattractive to me (and I think most guys would agree) and that means girls will all try to be super skinny when they could be more attractive to the opposite sex as they are, being what they perceive as “fat.” It’s stupid.

The obesity epidemic makes people resort to “no calorie” foods, such as Splenda or Aspartame, which cause all sorts of problems because they aren’t REAL sweeteners, they’re chemically altered. So people focus on eating foods without any fat at all, and often eat too many simple carbohydrates instead, which translates into increased insulin production and turns the sugars into fats. So it’s a confusing, market-driven process where the newest fad is capitalized by companies.

What people don’t realize is that some people are genetically more fat than others; if we didn’t have the capability for storing fat, how would it help us? There was a reason we had the capacity to store fat long ago, because it served a purpose. When someone goes dramatically over the line in obesity, in a way that is detrimental to their physical health, that is bad. But having a few extra pounds has not been shown to dramatically impact health; eating patterns or genetics have. If people exercise and eat well and are mentally stable, they are as healthy as they can get. One also has to look at America’s scorecard: #1 most competitive nation, and #1 in stress levels–does anyone think that our capitalistic, competition-focused, hard-working system has anything to do with health?! No, after all, stress doesn’t hurt you…