Obesity

Obesity One of the biggest problems of the contemporary age is obesity. Obesity is increasing at an alarming rate everywhere in the world in general and in the advanced countries in particular. Today, obesity is as common, if not more, among children as it is among the adults in many parts of the world. The gravity of this problem can be estimated from the fact that at least one-third of the total population of the USA is obese (Flegal et al., 2010). Obesity is an outcome of the modern lifestyle which is characterized by junk food consumption and lack of exercise.
There has been a rapid increase in the trend of consumption of junk food over the decades among the people of all age-groups generally, and the children and adults particularly. The trend of cooking at home is reducing because home-cooking not only is costlier as compared to the ready-made food, but also does not taste quite as delicious as the ready-made food does. Purchasing individual ingredients to make food at home is both time-consuming and costly, and still, the quality of cooked food depends upon the skills of the cook, which are often not quite developed. People find it convenient to consume junk food as they are running short of time.
In the contemporary age, most of the people have to do more than one job in order to make both ends meet. This takes almost all of their time, leaving no time for physical workouts or exercises. Children spend the time using computers which they used for outdoor games in the past. These factors have led to increase in their tendency to become overweight and obese.
The process of becoming obese is not sudden. It is gradual. An individual moves from being normal weight to overweight and finally obese. Meanwhile, the individual notices the increase in weight but does not take it serious enough to do something about it as the activities that have led to this increase of weight have become an integral part of the individual’s lifestyle. “[S]ending more time in sedentary activities [is] related to higher weight status for all children, regardless of age or gender” (Vandewater, Shim, and Caplovitz, 2004, p. 82).
Obesity has many serious repercussions upon an individual’s life both physically and psychologically. From the physical perspective, obesity destroys the looks of the individual. Many men and women that were once handsome and pretty have lost the charm of their looks to obesity. Obesity is the cause of a lot of diseases including high blood pressure, heart attack, and diabetes. These days, many children are becoming the patients of diabetes along with obesity. Patients of obesity undergo a complete change in lifestyle for the worse with the onset of obesity. As they become obese, they become lazy and sluggish. Such people cannot deliver optimal performance at the workplace, and are made fun of in the social circle. Many obese people are socially excluded. This leads to depression and anxiety. Owing to the physical and psychological dangers of obesity, measures need to be taken to reduce its prevalence.
References:
Flegal, K. M., Carroll, M. D., Ogden, C. L., & Curtin, L. R. (2010). Prevalence and trends in
obesity among US Adults, 1999–2008. Journal of the American Medical Association. 303: 235–241.
Vandewater, E. A., Shim, M., and Caplovitz, A. G. (2004). Linking obesity and activity level
with children’s television and video game use. Journal of Adolescence. 27: 71–85.