The Epidemic called OBESITY

Obesity has become a global pandemic affecting the lives and health of millions of people, according to the World Health Organization. It is an accelerating social problem in industrialized countries and is also growing in the former colonial world. 

Obesity is very often defined as an eating disorder. However, it is not a simple condition of eating too much.  Health experts believe that obesity is a serious and chronic disease prevalent in today’s society.

As the “obesity epidemic” increases, so is the number of people that suffers from it. Approximately 300,000 adult deaths in the United States alone each year are directly attributable to unhealthy dietary habits and physical inactivity or sedentary behavior or obesity.   In the United States alone, nearly one third of the adult population is obese.  In the Europe, they have a similar encounter of the disease.  An astonishing 58 per cent of Britain’s adult population is considered overweight or obese, a report published in England said.  The National Audit Office of Britain reported last year that 20 percent of British women and 17 percent of men were as much as 70 pounds heavier than the recommended weight for their size. 

Obesity is not just a health issue.  It is also considered as a socio-economic problem that utilizes $117 billion per year in the United States alone.  In Britain, obesity cost £2.6 billion in NHS bills and indirect losses to the UK economy.  At least 18 million sick days a year can be attributed to obesity, it says, and the increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer and stroke reduces life expectancy by around nine years.

When it comes to explaining these trends, not only media reports, but many scientific articles disparagingly refer to a combination of fast food, increasing car ownership and a sedentary lifestyle in front of television sets or computer monitors.

In the first place, such generalisations are often backed by little substantiated data. Some studies have found that the prevalence of obesity among children is directly related to the hours of television viewed, for example, but other studies have failed to establish a correlation.

More fundamentally, these observations ignore the economic and social driving forces behind the changes in diet and lifestyle—including the profits generated by the food and entertainment industries—and the intense pressures caused by increasing working hours and declining living standards for the majority of working people.

Obesity can also lower the life expectancy of individuals.  In addition to this, obese people are increasing their susceptibility and risks to a number of diseases directly related to obesity.  This includes:  type 2 (adult onset) diabetes; high blood pressure; stroke; heart attack; heart failure;  cancer such as cancer of the colon or rectum; gallstones; gout and gouty arthritis; osteoarthritis; sleep apnea; and pickwickian syndrome