Obesity or overweight are an excessive or abnormal accumulation of fat that may deteriorate health. Nowadays, the problem of obesity is becoming more serious and widespread. Obesity is calculated with the help of a special formula, in which a person’s weight is divided by the square of their height (kg/m2). Body mass index (BMI) is an index that shows the ratio of the weight to the height of a person and is used to define overweight. Now, approximately 13% of adults around the world have a BMI of 30 or more, that makes them obese (Ogden, Carroll, & Flegal, 2014).
Background
History of Obesity
Constant malnutrition and food shortage have been one of the biggest problems for humanity since the beginning of its history. The problem of obesity is quite a new problem that appeared a few decades ago. Only in the eighteenth century with the technological advances, the problem of malnutrition began to disappear. These technologies helped improve public health, as quality, quantity, and variety of food increased (Hattori & Strum, 2013). After the World War II, a second wave of new technologies that caused the reduction of physical activity among the population took place. At that time, the first signs of obesity becoming a chronic disease with pathologic consequences appeared. The shortage of food throughout most of the human history was the reason why being stout was considered good even in the opinion of those times’ doctors and was reflected in the arts and literature. Only in the second half of the nineteenth century being stout was not good for aesthetic reasons. Then, in the twentieth century, obesity was associated with the decrease of longevity (Ng et al., 2014).
Last Forty Years
Since 1977, overweight rates have increased in every country in the world, no matter whether it is a developed country like the USA, UK, and Germany where food is affordable and abundant or the countries like Zimbabwe, Somalia, and Angola where malnutrition is a major problem (Ng et al., 2014). North Korea’s overweight rates are the lowest (from 1.6% in 1977 to 2.8% 2017). The largest rates belong to the island countries of Pacific Ocean, such as Tonga, Samoa, and Tuvalu. They have doubled for the same period of time. Nowadays, obesity is a risk factor for mortality from chronic nephritis. Also, it is associated with hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory problems, kidney diseases, diabetes and even cancer (Wentz, Björk, & Dahlgren, 2017).
Current Situation
The Causes of Obesity
The main cause of overweight and obesity is the imbalance of energy between calories consumed and calories burnt. This imbalance is caused by the consumption of a great amount of fat food and the decrease in physical activity and the sedentary way of life due to the appearance of new forms of work and the developed transport system (Ogden et al., 2014).
The underdeveloped countries also experience the problem of obesity. It is remarkable that they suffer from both obesity and malnutrition at the same time. The reason for this is that in these countries people cannot afford expensive and high nutritious food and are forced to buy cheap food which contains a large amount of fat and sugar. This type of a diet along with the low level of physical activity results in the increase of weight while the problem of malnutrition is still unsolved (Wentz et al., 2017).
Current Statistics
Currently, according to the worldwide statistics, around 37% of adults aged 20+ are overweight (BMI is more than 25 kg/m2) (36% men and 37% women). As for the obesity rates, 12% of men and 16% of women in the world are obese (BMI is more than 30 kg/m2) compared to 5% of men and 8% of women in 1977. The prevalence of obesity and overweight are highest in North America (around 67% for overweight and 31% for obesity) and Europe (62% and 26% accordingly) and are lowest in South East Asia (16% and 5% accordingly). It is noticeable that the obesity rates of women are considerably higher than those of men, except the high-income countries where they are the same (Pearl et al., 2017).
The Solutions to the Problem of Obesity
One way to reduce obesity is to make people make a healthier choice and lead an active way of life. However, this simple solution works rarely. It is important to create more space for physical activity in big cities and to change some aspects of the food production. The World Health Organization claims that governments are responsible for making healthy food and physical activity more accessible (Pearl et al., 2017). The food industry should encourage a healthy diet that would include the reduction of the amount of fat and sugar in the food, more affordable healthy and nutritious food, the restriction of marketing of foods that contain a lot of fat and sugar, and the support of a regular physical activity. At the individual level, people can reduce the amount of fat and sugar they consume and engage in a regular physical activity (Hattori & Strum, 2013).
Conclusion
The problem of obesity is one of the major health problems in today’s world, as it can cause chronic and life-threatening diseases. The overall rates of obesity and overweight are now increasing all over the world. The highest rates are in North America and Europe, and the lowest rates are in South East Asia. The problem of overweight and obesity can be solved by reducing the amount of fat and sugar in foods production and by creating more space in cities for physical activity.
References
Hattori, A., & Sturm, R. (2013) The obesity epidemic and changes in self-report biases in BMI. Obesity, 21(4), 856-860.
Ng, M., Fleming, T., Robinson, M., Thomson, B., Graetz, N., Margono, C., … Gakidou, E. (2014). Global, regional, and national prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adults during 1980-2013: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013. Lancet, 384(9945), 766-781.
Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M. D., & Flegal, K. M. (2014). Prevalence of Obesity in the United States. Jama, 312(2), 189-190.
Pearl, R. L., Wadden, T. A., Hopkins, C. M., Shaw, J. A., Hayes, M. R., Bakizada, Z. M., … Alamuddin, N. (2017). Association between weight bias internalization and metabolic syndrome among treatment-seeking individuals with obesity. Obesity, 25(2), 317-322.
Wentz, E., Björk, A., & Dahlgren, J. (2017). Neurodevelopmental disorders are highly over-represented in children with obesity: A cross-sectional study. Obesity, 25(1), 178-184.