Obesity: A rising epidemic in the World.

Obesity: A rising epidemic in the World.

Obesity is a serious world-wide health epidemic affecting one in four. It is a serious disease characterized by excessive body fat also considered to be a "Killer lifestyle" disease which is an important cause of preventable death worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.2 billion people worldwide are officially classified as overweight. If we only consider one country, India, the present scenario, even with so much of growing awareness about health and fitness, more than three percent (approx. three crores) of the Indian population is obese. A country where 270 million people live below the 'poverty line', obesity seems to be a distant issue, meant for the rich kids of first world. But India is under siege: junk food, alcohol and sedentary lifestyle are leading us to silent self-destruction, making one in every five Indian men and women either obese or overweight.

This is the plight of just one country. What about the rest of the world. The researches have estimated that the current adult human population weighs about 287 million tonnes, 15 million of which is due to needless flab and 3.5 million due to outright obesity and the figure for future predictions are even more alarming that by 2050 there could be 2.3 billion more people on the planet. There is an urgent need to put in more efforts to create public awareness about the repercussions of obesity and the need to curb it. People who are medically obese are usually affected by behavioural, genetic and environmental factors that are difficult to control even with dieting. This problem is expected to get worse as obesity is increasing and no national success stories of controlling it has been reported in the past 33 years. According to Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) that conducted the analysis for the study, "In the last three decades, not one country has achieved success in reducing obesity rates, and we expect obesity to rise steadily as incomes rise in low- and middle income countries in particular.

What is obesity and why is it caused?

This is a much bigger question which has to be understood and acted upon. The irony of the situation is that we all are well aware of it , but still are not determined to act accordingly. Obesity among children and adolescents is rising rapidly because the intake of calories is more than burning it over, which are stored as fats leading to energy imbalance and the main contributors to it are behaviour, environment and genetics. Behaviour, in the case of obesity, relates to food choices, amount of physical activity and the effort put to maintain our health. Based on food choices, many people love and enjoy eating less nutritive calorie-rich food which directly relates to the increase in meal quantity either at home or when dining out.

The entrance of modern technology and Internet has made people lazy and immobile." Children are increasingly becoming less active in this digital age where with rising incomes, cheap fast food and unattended access to video games has resulted in a marked shift from cereals, fruit and vegetables to packed preserved food and junk food etc. Outdoor activities have come to an end as children love to sit indoors and surfing and chatting on internet, playing computer or mobile games etc. Sitting in an air-conditioned atmosphere restricts them to physically use their body and burn the calorie intake. Moreover, previously there was a thrust upon home cooked food which was nutritive and harmless, but today a large number of the population has started relying on processed foods that contains a huge percentage of trans-fat, sugars, and other unhealthy and artificial ingredients. Previously where people faced the problem of under nutrition, today, they are exposed to the "over nutrition of the modern world through globalisation". 

The major roots of obesity lie in lack of physical activity, environmental attitude, family heredity, dietary patterns and socioeconomic status etc. Since childhood obesity is not just a cosmetic problem but with lifestyle disorders, even children and younger people are developing joint disorders, knee pain etc. with the risk of developing osteoarthritis. Obesity is the core of many diseases too such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular ailments etc. Yet, we seem to do nothing to counter the menace, allowing ourselves to be controlled by a "pandemic", happily shrugging off the dangers with unpardonable nonchalance.

Side effects of obesity:

a) Social Acceptance: Social acceptance and weight control are inter-related today the teenagers as well as adults are battling with weight problems, emotional problems or a combination of both for people who are suffering from eating disorders face severe problems that can sometimes lead to fatal consequences also. A person’s outward appearance promotes other individuals to “judge” and “accept” them based in the society on weight factors alone. Obesity does make you feel lethargic that affects your body language too resulting in people believing that overweight individuals are lazy or have no self-control, and these negative stereotypes just help reinforce the view that obesity is the fault of the overweight person.

b) Discrimination: Discrimination against people who are overweight transpires frequently and many times we may not even realize that we are being discriminatory. Corporate firms, business houses and even small firms etc. prefer thin, smart and good looking personalities to project the high standards of the company.

c) Need for a satisfactory love life: Acceptance in the group is not adequate. Each man and woman yearns to be all-important to just one individual. Each man craves a place in the heart of one woman that no other man can take. Each woman wants to be indispensable to one man. Every person wants to reign supreme in the heart of one individual, but your inner inhibitions hold you back from moving forward.

d) Feeling of insecurity: An overweight (obese) person feels insecure and unhappy as they are well aware of their physique which deepens this feeling that sometimes touches its dangerous levels of desperation in the effort to match up with a societal ideal.

e) Lack of confidence: The confidence of most people is tied directly into their body and self-image. Fat people are generally more self-conscious and feel terrible about their weight problem. We all have a mental picture of who we are, how we look, what we are good at and what our weaknesses might be. How we feel about ourselves can influence the way we live our lives. Everyone wants to feel valued, loved and accepted.

f) Unhealthy lifestyle: Overweight people lack the discipline and character to make solid long term moves that shall keep them healthy. He never enjoys being active and doing things, instead prefers to enjoy staying at home, doing other non-physical activities like watching television, gossiping with other members of the house etc. His sluggishness and increasing appetite, his periodic breathlessness, occasional dizzy spells and pain in the knees confine him permanently to the house and this leads them to depression with an anonymous feeling of not being liked by anyone etc.

REJECTION: 

Where acceptance is friendly, there rejection is an evil twin. We are deeply hurt and this very feeling bubbles up when we are excluded from lunch with co-workers, fail to land the job you interviewed for or are dumped by a romantic partner. Being rejected is bad for health then we feel isolated, lonely and excluded. We are also prone to have poor physical health, tend to lose sleep and more over often lose the zeal to live even if surrounded by those who care about them.

Rejection not only makes us feel lousy but also reduces or efficiency during performance on difficult intellectual tasks which further contributes to aggression as well as poor impulse control. Social rejection aches like that physical pain which cannot be treated thus increases anger, anxiety, depression, jealousy and sadness in an individual. Being excluded is directly associated with poor mental health leading to unhappiness and depression. A feeling of exclusion can also contribute to suicide.

A greater need for awareness with strong determination:

Human beings have two psychological cravings where the first is for love, affection, warmth and caring, there the second is for approval, recognition or affirmation.

All elders, children, young or old need to peep into the bottom of their hearts and take a pledge that whatever be, they shall help each other from this major disease. We all should stop each other from cheating on food where parents should be very particular towards their child’s outdoor physical activities. Restrictions should be put on outside junk food and a silent check on the activities of their children is of utmost importance. Counselling and life-coaching can help in promoting self-perceptions to have an impact on self-esteem. Our body is a fine-tuned machine that requires maintenance and work for optimal performance.

We should be focused and should not hesitate to seek treatment if unable to control obesity ourselves. In addition to seeking treatment, it is also important to eat a healthy and nutrient dense diet, so that our body benefits from all the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. Eliminate foods that are processed, high in calories while being low in nutrients, high in fat, sugar, and salt and eat several smaller meals a day, incorporating an acceptable exercise program based on our ability and it is only then, when we will definitely see and feel a difference. Once our health will improve significantly, then our clothes will fit better giving a big boost to our overall personality and self-esteem making us look confident and smart.

Obesity: a growing concern?

In this century, people have become used to the fast paced life. This lifestyle change is, not only causing negative effects on their health, body and mind but also, becoming a cause of many chronic and cardiovascular diseases. Overweight and obesity were first considered a problem of rich countries only, but now they have become a concern in many countries. India is not an exception to them and there are rising numbers of people in middle-class that are obese.

Most of the countries are following rising trends in obesity. With the industrialization, the countries are becoming richer and the citizens are becoming obese and seeking medical help. People do not want to walk and prefer to drive to work. Statistics show that these countries are on the urge of becoming a nation with more than half of its population being obese or suffering weight related illnesses and diseases.

People are attracted towards processed foods. A lot of them have started relying on processed food which contains a huge percentage of Trans fat, sugars, and other unhealthy and artificial ingredients. Such fats build up in a person’s body may causes them to suffer from chronic diseases and severe illnesses. A few years ago operations and surgeries were not needed because people were active and did not rely on processed food. These days’ plastic surgeons and doctors are in high demand to perform surgeries to make a person look slimmer and prevent their bodies against diseases.

People, today have no time to exercise due to their busy schedule. Many who want to exercise don’t have time to due to the commitments they have made. People need to start managing their time accordingly so they have some time of their busy life devoted for exercising. They need to make an agenda for the day and find some time which they can use to exercise. Another reason why obesity is a concern is due to alcohol and drugs and its side.

The government of such countries should start implementing their concerns for obesity in schools as children these days are not aware of the diseases obesity can cause. We need to increase child awareness and start helping the ones who have chosen path to come back on track.

There are lots of ways to reduce obesity. One of them is that one should eat a fruit salad instead of eating sweets and high calorie diets. More thrust on green vegetables and foods that have low levels of fat should be given. Everyone should eat healthy food, exercise daily and try your best to always be relaxed and stress free.

Eat healthy, stay fit, energetic and feel fresh!

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