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Obesity



Overweight and obesity are both labels used for the ranges of weight that are greater than what is generally considered to be healthy for a given height, age, and sex. They are also used to define abnormal or excessive fat accumulation on the body that may impair health and increase the likelihood of certain diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines "overweight" as a BMI (Body Mass Index) equal to or more than 25, and "obesity" as a BMI equal to or more than 30. BMI is a simple index of weight-to-height that is commonly used to classify overweight and obesity in adult individuals. It is defined as the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters (kg/m2).

Obesity is a global epidemic. According to the WHO, by 2015 approximately 2.3 billion of the world adult population will be overweight and more than 700 million of these will be obese.

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Causes and Risk Factors

Obesity and overweight are primarily caused when the amount of calories expended is less than the amount of calories consumed. Several factors have contributed toward this energy imbalance. Poor lifestyle has also aggravated this problem to a great extent. There has been a steep rise in the intake of high calorie foods that are rich in fats and sugars but low in vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients. The problem is compounded by the overall decrease in physical activity because of the rise in sedentary lifestyle, dependence on vehicular transport, and increase in urbanization. Obesity is observed in men, women, and children. Children of this generation are more interested in watching television or using the internet instead of playing outdoors. Greasy, salty, and sugary foods are the only three types of foods that entice most children.


Most children would prefer to consume French fries instead of celery sticks and the children-centric marketing of processed food and the abundance of unhealthy products in our supermarkets have done nothing to avert this trend.
It may appear that overeating and obesity are only problems faced by people who are living in developed countries, but that is not entirely true. Ironically, poverty is also one of the causes of obesity. Junk food or food with zero or little nutritional value is cheaper and more easily available than healthy food. Individuals who live below the poverty line, who must provide food for many others, or who cannot afford to spend money on healthy food ultimately consume a lot of these "filler" foods that contain empty calories.

Obesity may also be hereditary. Some scientists believe that individuals can be born with "overweight" genes. As previously said, poor living habits such as overeating and lack of exercise only intensifies this problem. Weight gain during pregnancy is normal, but some women retain a lot of excess weight even post-delivery. Anyone who does not adequately care for his or her body and who abuses it by overeating, eating unhealthy foods, and lacking physical activity is at risk of being obese. Overweight and obesity lead to serious health consequences such as cardiovascular disease (mainly heart disease and stroke), diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders such as osteoarthritis, and even cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon).

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