Adam Socha/FGCU/Obesity

According to the World Health Organization overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health. A crude population measure of obesity is the body mass index (BMI), a person’s weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of his or her height (in meters). A person with a BMI of 30 or more is generally considered obese. A person with a BMI equal to or more than 25 is considered overweight. Overweight and obesity are major risk factors for a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Once considered a problem only in high income countries, overweight and obesity are now dramatically on the rise in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings. More education and awareness needs to be emphasized to make people aware of the potential risks and illnesses associated with obesity. Years ago when there were no cars people had to walk or ride the bike to wherever they needed to go, therefore, they got more exercise and burned more calories. Today is a different story. Everybody relies on cars to take them to places. In today’s world there is much less manpower than there was years ago. Couple that with fast-food restaurants that contain high fat and calories and you have an obesity problem that is growing rapidly. Luckily there are solutions to the problem. By eating the right things and exercising you can prevent becoming overweight and obese.

This entry was posted on 15. November 2009 at 23:23 and is filed under Social Problems. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.