Today, in our society many people face the difficulty of increase in weight. According to 2015 World Health Organisation statistics, the ratio of overweight and obesity in the world’s population has more than doubled since 1980. According to them 1.9 billion adults fall in the category of overweight of which over 600 million were found to be obese. Among children, 42 million under the age of 5 are overweight and obese.
Five to 10 years back the mortality of underweight people used to be higher than people who were overweight, but now obesity causes more deaths than famine and starvation.
Overweight is associated with multiple health problems like high cholesterol levels which leads to high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. The question which comes to mind is that why people today gain more weight compared to people in the past? Following are some causes of weight gain.
Sedentary lifestyle
Sedentary lifestyle is a manner of living which constitutes of minimal to no physical activity due to which food eaten mostly becomes fat. Nowadays, most daily activities are carried out while sitting for instance; office work where a major portion of the day is spent sitting in front of the computer. Similar examples are reading books, playing games, watching television or using and iPad.
Overeating or binge eating
As I mentioned above major part of our daily activities are associated with sitting. While carrying out those activities,we begin consuming various eatables or drinks ie chips, cookies, sweets, drinks. All of these food items comprise of empty calories which are detrimental to the health. Furthermore, while consuming such items one does not realise how much we ate which results in over eating. Such eating habits when combined with stress can lead to serious binge eating which can be extremely dangerous to one’s health.
Consumption of processed food
Since all of us are very busy in our lives, we look for ease and comfort in everything including food choices. Most people today prefer to eat processed food. Processed food is high in calories as compared to food which is freshly made and also it does not provide enough nutrients which fresh foods provide.
Tempting advertisements
The major cause of obesity during these days is tempting advertisements and promotional offers whether they are on billboards, television, in malls or anywhere else. They portray delicious food pictures which grab one’s attention and make them want to have them.
