HEALTH MATTERS
Why Is Obesity Getting
Worse?
By Kepha Nyanumba
O
besity has been a topic of
discussion for the last 30 years.
Entire industries have grown
around it and all sorts of diets and exercise
programs have promised lasting results.
Yet the problem has continued to balloon,
seemingly out of control. Researchers
looking at obesity rates around the world
note that for the first time in history,
obese people now outnumber those who
are underweight. Approximately 2 billion
people worldwide are now overweight,
and 600 million of them are obese.
containing high levels of added sugar,
saturated fat, and sodium. programs detailing the lives and weight
loss struggles of the obese individuals.
The History of Obesity Obesity most often occurs when a person
consistently eats more calories than he
burns, and his body stores the excess
energy as fat. This energy balance, "calories
in, calories out" concept, originated with
a simple observation involving mice, in
1953.
Chronic food shortage and malnutrition
have been the scourge of humankind
from the dawn of history. For much of
civilization, being overweight or obese
was lauded as a symbol of wealth and
prosperity something that was celebrated.
How metabolism Influences
Obesity
WHO defines Obesity as abnormal or
excessive fat accumulation that presents a
risk to health. It is now considered one
of the most common risk factors in most
Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs)
such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and
cancer. Only as countries developed in the 18th
century and food became more readily
available did the weight of populations as
a whole start to rise. At first, the greater
availability of food created a stronger,
healthier population. But, in the last
century, it has developed into a full-
blown health problem with many people
struggling with weight loss. In Kenya Obesity is tightening its grip
as a result of urbanization that exposes
people to a sedentary lifestyle and a diet
that veers from traditional foods to foods While the struggles of obesity were
initially featured mostly in magazines and
on talk shows, today, obesity has become
a genre of entertainment, with reality TV Do you know people who complain about
having a slow metabolism and how they
barely eat anything yet still gain weight?
Have you met people who complain about
someone they know who can eat whatever
he or she wants including large portions
of junk food due to a fast metabolism
and apparently never gain weight? This
scenario raises a very good question on
the role of metabolism in weight gain or
weight loss.
The impulse to reach for a chocolate bar or
junk foods everyday is not a simple one to
understand. Food cravings start in the brain,
unlike hunger, which begins in the belly, and
are stimulated by things like stress, memo-
ry, and routine far more often than by the
amount of time since your last meal. Hun-
ger comes on gradually and can be easily
satisfied. Cravings are sudden, specific, and
more difficult to appease. Metabolism or metabolic rate is defined
as the series of chemical reactions in a
living organism that create and break
down energy necessary for life. More
simply, it's the rate at which your body
expends energy or burns calories. One
way to think about metabolism is to view
your body as a car engine that is always
running. When you're sitting still or
sleeping, you're engine is idling like a
car at a stop light. A certain amount of
energy is being burned just to keep the
engine running. As humans our fuel
source is the calories found in foods we
eat and beverages we drink. How fast
84 MAL29/19 ISSUE