Obesity can be defined as gaining weight more than what is usually on average between 25kg/m2 and 30kg/m2. It is an existential threat to human beings, reaching epidemic proportions in the world. In accordance with official statistics, obesity figure has nearly tripled since 1975, worldwide. In India, almost 5 percent of the total population is reportedly affected by obesity.
According to a research conducted at the beginning of 2018, 63.4% of Australian adults and 27.6% of children were found overweight in 2014-15, and compared to 1995, in Australia 1 in 10 has got overweight today. In another research conducted by WHO in 2015, America stood 17th in the WHO ranking with BMI mean of 28.8, following Saudi Arabia on the 21st and United Kingdom on the 28th number with BMI mean of 28.5 and 27.3 respectively in the midst of all the countries. Such is the deplorable condition on the part of people suffering through obesity. Without caring for scourges of obesity that is likely to result in the dire consequences, a great number of people are globally becoming obese.
As much same as the many other diseases, such as cancer, obesity is a hormonal disease. However, there are many other causes that predominantly contribute to obesity. One of them is a lack of regular physical activity. In an era where technology has speeded up to replace the workforce, cater to human’s wishes and luxuries without any difficulty and ease their ways of doing things which otherwise could have called for strenuous efforts and hard work, it has become a hard task for people to take regular exercise. Being so lazy that they cannot do away with increased technology to do even minor things, staying glued to television screens for hours, riding on motorbikes and cars on a walking distance, people have turned obese. Many doctors posit lack of physical work as the bane of a considerable number of diseases, including obesity.
The other prevailing cause of the growth of weight is unhealthy and unhygienic diet. Obesity is predominantly caused by consumption of calorific and inorganic food which includes a big amount of cholesterol, calories, and fats. Many a man doesn’t take account of quality and intake, of food at the time of eating. It is either because of their interest or because they remain in the obscurity of diseases being developed by high fat and calorie content, in the food. Awareness of diseases resulting from consuming unhealthy food notwithstanding, most of the literate people of the developed countries such as USA and UK consume much of the spicy, fast and processed food for the reason being their easy and instant approach to it.
Whether to a little extent or much, genetic factor likewise contributes to the obesity disorder. Genetic traits as such are likely to be inherited from parents. It is a common dictum of obese people that obesity runs in their family, it is in their genes. Effects of heredity are seen on the behavior and cognition of children. Most children are born and grow obese due to this cause.
Equally responsible for the deterioration of health and gain of weight is inadequate sleep. A connected study reveals that sleeping less than six hours results in a twenty percent increase in weight, meaning that the less one sleeps the more the one is likely to put on weight. It is, therefore, necessary for a healthy life to seek to keep clear of all these factors enumerated above.
Though obesity is preventable and can be cured with lots of health care, medical treatment, and physical activities, it leads to dire consequences. It is considered in the world over as an overwhelmingly problematic disease. It gives birth to a great number of other health issues and lethal diseases such as cancer. With excessive weight, people have to undergo many risky disorders: anxiety, depression, sleep apnea, and arthritis and many others. A lot of research findings which contribute to this fact beware obese people of harm and repercussions of accumulating weight.
Inter alia, obesity likewise results in the demoralization of individual and social life of obese people. Confronted with ignorance and humiliation in the society, they feel uncomfortable in domestic gatherings and in social settings and events. Our society deprives them of their basic right, for instance, to freedom of choice and expression, demeaning their self-esteem by making fun of them.
Travelling in local vehicles becomes difficult for them. Travelling from one place to the other causes the loss of respect. Drivers of local vans, rickshaws, and cars don’t let them be seated in their vehicles for the reason being they’re occupying a little more space. Once they are permitted to take seats, other passengers sitting beside them whisper derogatory and critical remarks about them. It is much of disgusting on the side of people hurling opprobrium and ridicule and spitting venom on those inevitable part of their society.
It also increases the risk of breakups in relations; finding a partner and keeping up relations for obese men has become a Gordian knot to untie. If the victims of overweight are girls, it becomes difficult for their parents to find average men to give their hand to. They are, therefore, subject to domestic humiliation, both before and after marriage. Cases of divorce following the violence between wife and husband are witnessed to have proliferated.
It is an indeed terrible experience that there are a negligible number of job opportunities for obese folks. They are neglected by employers in particular in the private sector due to thinking that their efficiency and productivity is comparatively less than those who have a strong healthy life.
Those who have plunged into obesity and are in an unhealthy condition can, therefore, knowledge of the importance of being healthy which is what is believed to be a blessing by God. Faced with the deteriorating condition of health––as is the desire of every person whether it is young, adult, or old, age doesn’t matter, to look healthy and strong––this group of people has always been in search of different ways to remedy the disease. In order that these people could easily combat the obesity, maintain their health, lead their life full of zeal and zest, and enjoy the merriments of life given below are some paramount strategies recommended by medical experts and researchers.
To maintain excellent health, the first thing that should be considered is a balanced and healthy diet. People, in especial, those who are obese need to go on a balanced diet, refining their menu to include quality food containing a little number of calories and fats. As a relative study affirms that one who consumes between five hundred and one thousand calories each day can lose one or two pounds weight per week. Limited intake of fats and sugar-enriched food is required in the diet. Healthy fats, such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated oils should likewise be preferred. It is an established fact that people on a hygienic diet are stronger and healthier than those who have a good appetite and strange habits of eating too much.
Doing physical activity is as much important to limit the growth of weight as a balanced diet. It not only keeps the folks away from putting on weight but also is an anecdote to many other mounting disorders and diseases. Regular physical activity and exercise shapes the body structure well, makes the muscles strong, maintains good health and keeps people active, and protects their life from catching up the diseases which otherwise are likely to take birth in the face of obesity. Taking stairs rather than using the elevator, preferring frequent breaks from prolong sitting to just studying and doing work continuously for hours, and going for a walk for half an hour in a day and many other such exercises related to obesity are believed by people in general and recommended by doctors in especial to be the most effective strategies and techniques to get rid of putting on weight and to remain physically fit and mentally active. It is the matter of utmost and urgent concern that those, who are likely to gain weight over than what it should be, ought to go for the physical activities.
Medical research related to obesity postulates that there is the pressing need for enough sleep for the loss of weight and to stay away from accumulating it. Adequate sleep helps smooth the circulatory system and manage the calories inside the body. With proper sleep, calories in the body occupy their actual position and people remain alert and active and enjoy participating in the physical activities and in a variety of events. And therefore, though indirectly, adequate sleep limits the growth of weight of the body. Sleeping for six to eight hours on a daily basis in accordance with man’s own circadian clock is most of the times recommended in an attempt to particularly control obesity.
It is in the cosmic interest of people, especially the obese, to consider afore-mentioned remedies and many others of the same kind in order to stay healthy and protected from deleterious diseases and social humiliation.
The writer is a student of M.A English Literature at Shah Abdul University of Khairpur