Entry # 4 -Obesity Epidemic


There is an obesity epidemic in developed countries in the world. One of the biggest health issues is the rise in obesity among both adults and children in the U.S. According to CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), two out of every three Americans are considered to be overweight or obese. Experts agree that as more and more obese children become obese adults, the diseases associated with obesity, such as heart disease, cancer, and especially diabetes will increase.

So what's causing the epidemic? Everyone agrees that it comes from two things: eating too much and exercising too little. Changes in our environment are playing the key role. The culprit is a decrease in our physical activity, because of shifts in how we live and work. We don't get as much exercise as previous generations did. And as fast food companies and chains compete with one another by increasing portion sizes, our waists are increasing proportionately.

Even more alarming, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents is on the rise, and youth are becoming overweight and obese at earlier ages. One out of six children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 are obese and one out of three are overweight or obese. Early obesity not only increases the likelihood of adult obesity, it also increases the risk of heart disease in adulthood, as well as the prevalence of weight-related risk factors for cardiovascular disease such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar.

Overweight is responsible for the dramatic increase in diagnoses of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) (formerly called adult–onset diabetes) among children. When I first saw a diagnosis of type 2 DM on a child, I thought that there was some kind of a technical mistake. Working as a physician in an East European country, I never heard about children having type 2 DM, because it usually takes years, even decades for the disease to develop. The body has to be exposed to high levels of high blood sugar for years, so the receptors for Insulin stop responding to it. That’s an especially worrisome trend, given the heavy burden of complications associated with the disease. Obesity rates are higher in adults than in children. But in relative terms, the U.S., Brazil, China, and other countries have seen the problem escalate more rapidly in children than in adults. As poor countries move up the income scale and switch from traditional diets to Western food ways, obesity rates rise.

A sedentary lifestyle is another possible contributing factor to obesity. Technology such as televisions, cellular devices, and video games add on to the epidemic by increasing time spent in the home versus the time that could be spent being outside or doing some kind of physical activity.


 Solutions 

The solution is complex and our whole society has to be involved in order to be successful. Eating more filling, higher fiber foods help satiety signals to the brain. Get physically active! Parents can be role models for their children. Community programs, like Farmer Markets provide fruits and vegetables for free to people who can not afford to buy them. Government organizations can develop environments which support more active living- programs for nutrition and physical activity in schools; allow easy access to schools, parks, businesses, so people can walk; provide incentives to grocery markets which provide healthy foods; employers can offer healthier food, and organize programs which support healthy lifestyle, like gyms and lactation rooms at the workplace, for their employees.

Obesity epidemic is a complex problem for our society and needs the effort of everybody to get resolved.