Obesity – a choice not a disease

Fahmida Hashem :
Obesity means having too much body fat. It is different from being overweight, which means weighing too much. The balance between calories-in and calories-out differs for each person. Factors that might affect your weight include your genetic makeup, overeating, eating high-fat foods, and not being physically active.
Being obese increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, and some cancers. If you are obese, losing even 5 to 10 percent of your weight can delay or prevent some of these diseases.
In 1950, the number of starving individuals on Earth was estimated to be around 700 million. At the time, obesity affected approximately 100 million people around the globe, primarily in rich countries. These statistics have changed dramatically over the past six decades.
Television, radio and print advertising bombards us with enticements to eat food that is high in calories, including empty calories, fat, sugar and salt. Our bodies were not designed to be sedentary, but we now spend much of our time sitting in front of some type of screen rather than engaging in vigorous aerobic outdoor activity, and when we go shopping, we must ride around until we find a parking spot that is within feet of the entrance. Heaven forbid that we would walk a hundred yards!
One person dies every five minutes because of the food he eats and the resulting health conditions. Most of these deaths are caused in part or completely by eating disorders and obesity.
Obesity in Bangladesh is a huge problem and is growing still. The good news is that it is entirely preventable and reversible with proper education, diet and exercise. All of these things can be achieved simply by educating our children on the right things to eat and boycotting fast food.
Health leaders should be called for an emergency taskforce to be set up to tackle childhood and adult obesity in Bangladesh.They need an action group, made up of doctors, nurses, dieticians, dentists and schools, to be set up urgently.In it, health leaders call for better co-ordination of obesity treatment services so that all children can be encouraged to eat healthily from a young age.
They must call for a raft of other measures, including: improved investment in IT programs for weight management, more training in obesity for general peoples and other health professionals, outreach projects to educate families about the dangers of obesity. As parents and health professionals, we need to take responsibility and ensure that every child has a healthy and varied diet and regular exercise.
Obesity is the new normal and we need a unified approach to manage it. We need action now. We’ve got to start by doing proper monitoring of children’s weight from birth and then every year of their lives.
Now there is an obesity screening test in Bangladesh which is known by “Body composition analysis test.” Labaid Hospital serves this test for weight management.The purpose of this body composition analysis test is to give us an in-depth look at your current state of health. Body fat percentage is a leading indicator of fitness level and disease risk. This gives us insight on your health and is used as a guide for determining ideal weight and to monitor progress in weight control and/or exercise programs. With this detailed information, it can develop a more personalised exercise and nutrition program for obese & underweight person.
One trend I have noticed is that it is now a necessity to pay to be healthy.An entire generation is being destroyed by a diet of junk food and sugary drinks. Tackling obesity is one of our major priorities, but there is no magic bullet to solve the problem, and everyone has a role to play.
The main message is that obesity is established very early in life, and that it basically tracks through adolescence to adulthood. A consistent national approach to treating obesity was needed. n