Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography

Collins, Anne. "Causes of Obesity." Anne Collins. 13 Oct. 2007 http://www.annecollins.com/obesity/causes-of-obesity.htm.
This website was created by a woman named Anne Collins who directs obesity reduction programs. This personal website, though not very credible, contains information that Collins has observed directly among obese customers such as trends in foods they ate while growing up and what food they feed to their children as well as the correllation between inactivity and obesity. I have a lack of trust with this online source due to its informal nature and almost advertisement appearance. Though it is important to have a resource that has delt directly with "250,000 people" who are actually overweight, or so she claims. However, Collins valuable, observable information is good evidence to support a few different causes, or at least contributions, to gaining weight.

Cullen, Lisa T. "Not Too Rich or Too Thin: is a Healthy Diet Hard on the Wallet?" Time 1 Nov. 2007: 1.
In this article, Lisa Cullen links low prices with being over normal weight, or in other words, links high prices with being under normal weight. She says that in order to have a healthy, "quality" diet it costs a lot more money than it does to have large quantities of poor quality food which, she suggests, correllates to where these people live. Besides location increasing an unhealthy diet, Cullen says that schools are also adding to the problem by making junk food and soda available to children who ultimately learn bad eating habits. Lisa gives various reasons as to why children and adults alike aren't getting the proper nutrition they need whether it be school, location, or salary and how they are adding to already high percentages in the American obesity statistics.

"Economic Impact of Obesity." Obesity in America. The Endocrine Society. 13 Oct. 2007 .
This website (obesityinamerica.org) was created by The Endocrine Society and The Hormone Foundation in order to inform the American public of the facts, causes, effects, and treatments of obesity. This specific page describes a few of the economic effects of obesity and obesity related health problems and also gives astonishing statistics concerning annual monetary expenditures for obesity and its related effects. The importance of this page is to support how impactfull the effects of this disease truly are, not only on the body and health but also on the wallet.

"Geographic Breakdown." Obesity in America. The Endocrine Society. 13 Oct. 2007 http://www.obesityinamerics.org/geographic.html.
This website (obesityinamerica.org) was created by The Endocrine Society and The Hormone Foundation in order to inform the American public of the facts, causes, effects, and treatments of obesity. The "Geographic Breakdown" section of this website gives specific information regarding the trends of obesity rates in North America and the states where obesity is most prevelent. This page also gives data of obese people globally and, for example, how North America's obesity levels differ from other country's obesity levels. This page gives various statistics ranging from 1991 to 2001 to prove how obesity in America is relevent and is increasing over time. This page discourages obesity, not by using persuasive language but by simply stating the geographic facts of obesity in certain locations. And since my essay is based on the negative factors of obesity it will be very useful information when dicsussing the geographic trends in America and how they compare to other countries and, unfortunately, the obvious increase in obese people in the United States.

Lemonick, Michael D. "How We Grew So Big." Time 07 June 2004: 1-4.
This particular article from Time Magazine describes how genetic factors of surving and living in the paleolithic era are the same factors that are causing the public to gain weight today. This weight gain is due to the obvious differences between the 21st century and 50,000 years ago such as environment, eating habits, and lifetyles. Michael Lemonick describes in painstaking detail how we used to live compared to our health habits today and how that has caused an excessive weight gain in America. Though he deeply describes human's eating habit 50,ooo years ago, it is relevent today because it suggests genetic influence over weight gain in addition to eating, excersicing, and the readibility of food (fast food)at low costs, all of which, he suggests, are causes of obesity in America.

Murphy, Jenny. "The Super-Sizing of America: are Fast Food Chains to Blame for the Nation's Obesity?" Speakout. 15 June 2000. 13 Oct. 2007 .
This article by Jenny Murphy is a personal response to obesity in America in the year 2000. Murphy focuses on fast food chains as the main reason for the obesity epidemic in the U.S. and says the reason is becuase fast food chains have such abnormally large portions compared to the recommended amount. She also provides statistics from the Washington Post, Guest Choice Network, The Nation, and Time magazine in order to support her peronal claim through credible sources. Although, Murphy's personal response was posted on an online opinion research companycalled, "Speakout," and doesn't exactly hold the best credibility, she was still writing about a problem that was relevent and noticable even in the year 2000. And seven years later the problem is only getting worse, which is evidence that two causes of obesity are fast food and portion size.

United States. National Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Department of Health and Human Services. Obesity and Genetics: a Public Health Perspective. 24 Oct. 2007
http://www.cdc.gov/genomics/training/perspectives/files/obesedit.htm.
This article is based on the genetic factors contributing to obesity. It develops the idea that obesity is not caused only by genes but suggests that genetics do play a role in being overweight. Considering this article was published on a public health website by the Department of Health and Human Services, it is scientific information provided for the general public in a non-biased manner. Due to these reasons, it is a credible source in understanding the scientific definition of obesity and how it is measured. This article also says that the same genes that we as humans once used to avoid starvation may be the same genes that are making us obese. This article also suggests that under the same environmental factors, different people are effected in different ways, which also indicates genetic effects on obesity. This source provides credible scientific support for the theory that genetics are influencing the obesity epidemic.

"Why are Some People Obese? - Trends in Obesity Research." Obesity in America. The Endocrine Society. 13 Oct. 2007 http://www.obesityinamerica.org/whyobesity.html.
This website (obesityinamerica.org) was created by The Endocrine Society and The Hormone Foundation in order to inform the American public of the facts, causes, effects, and treatments of obesity. This specific page describes different factors in the environment that reasearch has shown, contribute to higher liklihood of being obese. Some of these factors include, medications, portion size, fat intake, high fructose corn syrup, low levels of activity, and quiting smoking cigarettes. Because these are studied, credible contributions to obesity they will provide further evidence to some of the causes of obesity.