I extend my warm welcome to everyone present here. Today, I will be talking about a topic of concern an utmost importance – ‘Obesity’.
Today in this fast paced world, health often takes the back seat, and we give it little or no heed.
The popular phrase, “we are what we eat”, is probably best suited for today’s world where eating habits are the worst and everything around us including food, water, air is getting polluted with contaminants at an alarming rate.
Many of us have often been chubby, or at least have had friends or relatives who have been or are chubby to an extent that they have developed an odd-body shape and even the internal functioning of the body has been compromised.
This state of the body is usually known as obesity and the people with this condition are called obese.
Obesity, today, is termed by many doctors and researchers as a proper disease that has specific causes, symptoms, as well as treatments.
The diseases that obesity cause are not genetic diseases and can be cured and treated easily. In earlier stages even medicine is not needed.
A look at the obesity statistics of the world will almost throw us into an epileptic shock.
There are more than two billionaire people aged 18 years and over who are obese. 39% of Adults aged above 18 are overweight. Obesity is the fifth leading risk of global deaths claiming above 3 million lives each year.
There are many other Lifestyle diseases which are caused as a result of obesity which are not included in these statistics.
Steps have to be taken now or else it will be too late. Sports and outdoor activities should be made mandatory within the academic curriculum.
Children should be taught conscious eating and balanced diet. Carbohydrate rich foods and sugar rich foods should be kept away from Children as much as possible.
Time is money. Today in this fast-paced world nobody has the time or interest in cooking wholesome meals.
Even a mother finds it easier to pay for a pizza for his child rather than grinding an hour in the kitchen cooking proper food. The time saved can be used for business or work.
These fast foods like pizza contains certain types of a healthy fats called trans fats and saturated fats which are extremely instrumental in the accumulation of fat in the body cells and the fat acquired by the consumption of these foods is especially difficult to shed off.
Another reason for obesity in today’s world is advent of electronic media which brings the world at our fingertips but at the same time alienates us from the society.
Whenever we are bored we either switch on the TV or the mobile phone or the computer. And with that we have one big companion that is food.
Food today serves many purposes and then as a source of fuel for the body. It gives us relief and mental satisfaction. Scientifically speaking, eating tasty foods has been found to trigger emotions of happiness.
Whenever we are depressed we tend to overeat. We no longer Eat to Live but instead we live so that we can eat.
People who follow this philosophy are in an extremely dangerous situation. Eating for mental satisfaction overtime inevitably leads to obesity.
Usually when people are obese, they are made fun of. Amidst our culture of fat shaming, the obese individuals tend to develop body image disorders.
This leads to depression and the resort to food to combat this depression which further makes him guilty of their physical appearance and this never-ending cycle of being guilty and eating food to release that continues unless the individual gets heated or to a point of no return when steps eye surgery has to be considered or in some cases the people even die.
We have in this world today the largest population of young adults and teenagers and majority of these teenagers and young adults are obese.
Awareness is extremely important. Social media should be taken up to make people informed about practice of balance and conscious eating so that we eat to live and not so that we live to eat.
New country can lead to progress and development if its population is healthy.
An unhealthy population leads to greater expenses of the country in healthcare and medical support which would otherwise have been easily utilized for developmental activities building roads, colleges, industries, etc.
I would like to conclude with the great Latin phrase, ” men sana en corpore sabo ” which literally means a sound mind resides in a sound body.
In the earlier times not only mental acumen was appreciated but at the same time physical appearance and strength were also tested.
Obesity is one of the greatest enemies of the developed world today and is eating up a generation which could have been anything from great scientists to great sportsmen, to astronauts, to actors and writers and so on.
If we end up losing our population to a mere lifestyle disease there is nothing more deleterious than that.
Thank you!!!
Leave a Reply