Obesity:

Obesity is really an interesting concept that has been emerging over the years. If you have noticed the very cause of obesity, it will be – sedentary lifestyle, poor food habits and mismanagement of one’s activities..

Around the World:

Obesity, as we study around the world, will surprises us with statistics and the data. The percentage of obese people are more in the West than in the East. This is so due to many cultural changes and food habits of both the West and the East.

Foods from the West: Burgers,Pizza,Cakes,Milk and Milk products,Pork,Beef,breads,etc
Beverages:Cola drinks,aerated drinks,milk shakes,etc

Foods from the East: 'Sushi',Rice products,Soy products,fish,etc
Beverages:Tea(green tea,wheat grass tea),hot water,etc

• One major difference we notice between the West and the East food habits is that the people of the East(especially Japan) hardly have any milk products in their diet.They drink a lot of “tea” and hot water based beverages rather than the cold or the milk based beverages.This major difference attributes to the percentage of fat in their diet.A lot of diets in the west consists of fat based milk products like butter,cheese,etc.As we all know,excess fat is stored in adipose tissue and that explains the bulging.On an average, Total fat intake should be between 20 and 35 percent of total calories. Eating more than that will be a danger for the body

• Generally after meals,people of the East(like Japan) consume hot water or tea.This makes the fat to liquidify and enter the body in a smooth manner rather than a solidified manner.In contrast,people of the West consume cold water or iced water after their meals.Generally after a tired day,people consume energy drinks that have a largely fair amount of glucose.This gives instant energy but wears out the body which forces the person to sleep afterwards.Food is eaten without even measuring the calories that are needed to be burnt after that.

Sedentary Lifestyle:

Most of the attributes of obesity are blamed at lifestyle.What happens is that People get up early,rush to work,come back home and sleep.In this present situation of recession,people have become workaholic and they concentrate hard on earning money to survive this recession.The transport for the office going people are car,tram or the bus while for the teens and school going kids are buses,tram,motorbikes.Most of the people have more than one jobs,which adds to their woes.

In the olden days,only a rare set of people were obese. Why? definitely due to lifestyle changes! Those were the days where computers were unheard; cars were a luxury and people used to ride to their office in bicycle! Weekends were meant for outings and trips and no gadgets meant family get-togethers for entertainment.

Any activity would burn calories; for that matter even singing, talking, etc. Previous era, people would meet and have recreational fun. Now a days, meeting is confined only to various occasions like birthdays, anniversaries and marriages; where the fun lasts only a few seconds. Eating cakes and cookies in olden era was of no danger as the physical work and activities burned the excess calories!

In the present era, people who are depressed sometimes turn to binging where they 'swallow' the food or eat foods that soothe their mood.These foods are chocolates,sugars,breads,etc. This was rarely seen in the olden times.

Children:

It is really alarming to see that children below 5 years are prone to obesity. This surely is to blame for the new generation lifestyle.

What happens?

1. Parents are always in their work and come home late for which they do not get to spend the time with their children. This amounts to children being a couch potato and playing games on the Computer.

2. Parents are afraid to say “no” when children demands for foods that are not even suitable to be eaten by them (fatty foods).This is because they do not want to come into argument with their children.

3. Every year a child is exposed to 40,000 advertisements which portray candies,confectionaries,etc.This makes the children to try on each and every product where they are curious to know the taste.They eventually end up eating more calories than required even for the sake of ‘tasting’

4. Not every child is encouraged to play sports in school, there are many cases where the overweight children are allowed only to sit and watch the games

5. Since the parents are not available to the children, they are hardly disciplined in the matters of food.

Fast Food:

In this present era, Fast food has become the saviour for many working people. They do not have the time to cook their food at home and hence take the alternative of eating what is prepared. What happens in a fast food is that, the contents of oil and salt are more than the actual nutrients present in them. The people who eat fast food eat them at a faster rate.(in a hurry).When food is eaten faster than the normal eating pace, it leads to the person feeling hungry and hence they eat even more.

Kitchens were the jewels for women folk. It would take pleasure for a woman to cook food as it would involve activities like cleaning, washing, chopping, etc. Kitchen was fun to try on new recepies and dishes. But that stage is rarely seen in the present generation.

People in the society:
Society consists of all kinds of people that stay together. They are good friends, neighbours, gossipers ,etc. What actually happens is, no body cares as they used to do in the previous era. Everyone is working and no one has the time to a meet for a casual talk. If friends meet up and go for a walk together/join a laughter club, may help not only losing the extra bulge;but also builds stronger Human Relations.

Sometimes people have a certain kind of fear while walking on the streets, which compels them to think that there is no safety on the streets and in the neighbourhood. People live in fear and doubt rather than with the zeal and attitude to help others.

What can be done?

The obesity epidemic is highly alarming but it is not impossible to eradicate it. Every thing begins from a small step that will make a major change in the world.

Stop the blame game of who is responsible for obesity-instead of fighting among ourselves, let us put our thinking caps on and find out the solutions

Education of good food habits is a must for children and adults alike. This will enable them to know what to eat, when to eat and how muchto eat.

Drinking a lot of warm water will surely help to keep up the internal activities of the body.

Inclusion of low fat foods in the diet and more fibrous fruits to with aid in proper digestion.

Performing activities like walking, workout to be done by everyone

Parents are to spend time with children in outdoor activtes, it motivates the parent as well as the child

People must learn to laugh and lighten up, one of the leading magazines have quoted saying that 10 minutes of laughter is equivalent to 20 minutes of cycling

Make use of all opportunities to go on bicycle to places instead of car/bus.This will ensure that the body is well exercised

Eating the right kind of fat will be really appreciable rather than eating all kinds of fat.