Before I go into the topic fully, here are some surprising facts about Obesity according to the World Health Organization (WHO)


•Worldwide obesity has nearly tripled since the year 1975.


•In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults, age 18 and older, were overweight. Of these over 650 million were obese(about 9%).


•39% of adults aged 18 years and over were overweight in 2016, and 13% were obese.


•Over half of the world's population live in countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight.


•38 million children under 5 years were overweight or obese in 2019.


•Over 340 million children and adolescents between age 5-19 were overweight or obese in 2016.


•Obesity is preventable.


•In Sub-saharan Africa e.g Nigeria, Obesity is fast becoming an endemic. 26% of Nigerian adults are either obese or overweight.


The basic cause of Obesity and overweight is an imbalance between the amounts of calories taken into the body and calories expended.

The major contributors to Global obesity are:

• Increase in intake of energy-dense foods that are high in fat and sugar(Junk food and many fast foods which are cheaper to get than healthy foods); an advent of rapid urbanization, and 

• An increase in physical inactivity due to the increasingly sedentary nature of many forms of work, changing modes of transportation, and increasing urbanization.


Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health.


Body mass index (BMI) is a simple index of weight-for-height that is commonly used to classify overweight and obesity. It is defined as a person's weight in kilograms divided by the square of his height in meters (kg/m 2).





Raised BMI is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases such as:


•Cardiovascular diseases (mainly heart disease and stroke), which were the leading cause of death and disabilities in 2012;

•Diabetes

•musculoskeletal disorders (especially osteoarthritis– a highly disabling degenerative disease of the joints)

•some cancers (including endometrial, breast, ovarian, prostate, liver, gallbladder, kidney, and colon).


The risk for these noncommunicable diseases increases, with increases in BMI.


Obesity isn't just about the lack of will-power to stop eating or work out more but it's a biological, physiological and an environmental problem.

So now the question is, what environmental, biological and physiological factors promote overeating? 

Fast foods, foods high in calorie content(burgers, pizza etc.), impulsive eating, increased food selection, and skipped meals all have an impact on overeating. Stress and mood changes can also cause a person to have abnormal eating habits. Even boredom, fatigue, and just habit can cause one to eat more than the body needs especially in theres era of Covid-19.


Conclusions

You could want to ask what all the fuzz is about concerning obesity but you should also know that the cost of Obesity on our society is high and the price we pay outweighs the pleasure we derive form an unhealthy lifestyle. Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders and cancer constantly increase the cost of health care and it's more sad that it's all an unnecessary evil we could avoid by making good decisions concerning what we eat, how much we consume and how we choose to live our lives..

Disclaimer If this post is your copyrighted property, please message this user or email us your request at team@pejoweb.com with a link to this post