Obesity Epidemic

More people in the world are obese than are starving!! This BBC article estimates that over 1 billion people in the world are obese compared to the 800 million who are undernourished.

The story is the same across the world. Easier access to larger quantities of food, particularly processed food high in oils, sugars and salt, and increasingly sedentary lifestyles have combined to generate a global obesity epidemic. Regardles of whether the population in question is urban or rural, rich or poor, "first world" or "third world", the trends are identical; obesity is increasing at an alarming rate.

From my perspective, it is the hospital system that deals with the end-results of all this. The obese are overrepresented in hospitals in general, but also in intensive care, coronary care and high dependency units. They are at the sickest end of the spectrum for most diseases. They have longer hospital stays and more complications from many treatments. Their risk of dying from anaesthesia for an operation is higher than the average person (of course, that phrase will have no meaning soon because the "average" person will be obese).

So the point I am trying to make is that something has to be done soon. The current generation of kids are already much more obese than my generation. The next generation of kids must be raised properly, with the right health education, so that they do not continue the trend. Today's eating habits, including the preference for fast food, junk food, soft drinks and general overeating, have to be fixed. The junk/fast food companies have to take part of the blame for their role in promoting obesity by advertising their......well, junk, to schoolkids in particular. It is quite similar to the cigarette companies which for years lied about the effects of smoking on the lungs, and advertised heavily to get millions of people addicted to nicotine.

But the main problem in my opinion is the modern sedentary lifestyle. Seriously, we are required to do no more than the barest minimum of physical activity in the course of an average day. People whinge and whine about having to walk for 10-15 minutes. Half the population doesnt know how to ride a bicycle. Even less have ever jogged or ran outside of PE class in high school. No longer are kids encouraged to play sports- they can do that on their playstations!!

When I was growing up in India, we hardly used to be indoors when there was daylight. Whether it was cricket, football, cycling or just running around chasing each other, we were always doing something. Even after moving to Australia, we (my brother and I) played lots of cricket and footy. It was only in high school, hooked to stupid computer games, that I fell into the path of sloth. But luckily, after high school, I began playing lots of sport and going to the gym (which I stopped 3 years ago). Anyway, the point is that in my generation I am basically at or slightly below average in terms of physical activity. But compared to the average teenager today, I must be close to being a semiprofessional athlete......