It’s something you’ve heard about on the news for quite some time now, obesity in America has greatly increased and it is a growing concern in many people, but recent studies have shown that now, not only is it just a threat for people’s health, but is also passing up smoking as the #1cause of preventable death in America.

According to research in the Journal of the American Medical Association, in the year 200 alone, 400,000 deaths were brought on as the result of poor diet and exercise, or about 16.6% of total deaths, while smoking led to about 435,000 deaths, or about 18.1% of total deaths. Just these statistics alone show how increasingly dangerous the problem of obesity has become, and these rates are only continuing to climb as the years go by.

Many people will say that smoking is a much greater risk to health than just being overweight; while that may be true for the most part in the long run, smoking rates in America have been dropping over the past few years, while more and more people have become overweight. Most of it is a result of America’s overly-relaxed lifestyle, in which most of people’s time is either spent in front of a TV screen or a computer screen. While many efforts have been taken to get Americans out of this habit, such as anti-obesity ads on television and in magazines, there still seems to be little progress being made as the number of obese people continues to rise.

The main causes of death linked with obesity are heart disease, cancer, and stroke, but in extreme cases, it can also cause diabetes which can account for even more deaths on obesity’s part. Obesity can also complicate other parts of people’s lives such as causing back pain and arthritis which can stop them from doing many things that they once loved. Many experts say that all of these complications can be prevented by people just getting up from their lazy lifestyles, and exercising more and eating better. IT sounds pretty easy, and yet many people continue down their own laid-back destructive paths.

Obesity is becoming very dangerous, a lot more dangerous than most people give it credit for. It seems like most people’s fears are centered on new diseases coming to America, or old diseases in general that have killed people in the past. But unfortunately, they are oblivious to the danger that may be lurking in their own homes.