Effect of Diet on Early Onset of Chronic Diseases: A Focus on Obesity - Assignment Example

? Effect of Diet on Early Onset of Chronic Diseases: A Focus on Obesity Effect of Diet on Early Onset of Chronic Diseases: A Focus on Obesity Concerns about personal health have become so common in the current era; most people would love to surpass life expectancy. In this regard, the world population has resorted to adopting practices that promote health. Conspicuous among the practices has been the urge for people to take a balance diet. Indeed, it has been widely agreeable that diet is particularly crucial. A balanced diet has the potential of checking on the early onset of various chronic diseases including obesity. Obesity refers to a medical condition that is characterized by building up of excess fat around the body tissues. Such a condition threatens the body health in that it may reduce the person’s life expectancy or cause other health complications. The Body Mass Index is used to ascertain the obesity conditions of the body. What is intriguing about obesity is that the cases are persistently increasing around the globe. In an attempt to curb the health issues pertaining to obesity, various causes of obesity have been identified The obesity prevalence has been attributed to taking in of excess calories. It is argued that availability of calories has been increasing. United States has recorded the highest calories per person of all countries in the world. In 1996, the amount of calories available per person was about 3,654 but rose to over 3,700 by 2007. During the same period, the average number of calories available per person in Europe was 3,394 but rose to over 3,600. In developing countries such as Asia, the amount of calories per person stood at 2,648 in 2007. The Sub-Saharan Africa recorded 2,176 as the number of calories available per person. These levels of calory consumption have been cited to positively correlate with increasing obesity prevalence (Neale & Hayakawa 2008). Furthermore, the existing guidelines on nutrition have not achieved much at sensitizing people on bad dietary habits. As from 1970s to early 2008s, the obesity prevalence in United States doubled (from about 15 percent to about 30 percent). Conversely, the average of food energy consumed by the population increased. The average number of calories consumed by every woman rose from 1,542 in 1971 to 1,877 in 2009. Similarly, the food energy consumed per person rose from 2,450 to 2,618 in men. This increased calorie intake was mainly as a result of carbohydrate intake, and not fat. The carbohydrates were consumed in form of sweetened beverages and junk food (chips). Currently, they account for over 25 percent of food energy consumed by adults in United States. It is argued that the consumption of junk as well as other forms of fast foods has been necessitated by their low costs (Knai, McKee, Darmon, Lobstein & Rutter 2012). In particular, the consumption of first foods has quadrupled since 1970s. Policies and techniques in agriculture, such as in the United States and America as well as Europe, have resulted in low food prices. For instance, the US Farm Bill has made it possible for corn, wheat and rice to be more affordable than fruits and vegetables. Arguably, obesity cases increased upon the implementation of the bill. On the other hand, obesity levels have been associated with low social classes. This has been attributed to the fact that individuals, especially children, from poor families cannot afford health foods to enable their bodies to stand against obesity. Additionally, if the role of dieting is refuted, then food consumption habits are often more underreported by obese individuals than individuals with normal body fat index (Barness, Opitz & Gilbert 2007). Even the elderly are not spared from the nutrition limitations. It is argued that malnutrition or undernutrition is to blame for about 40 percent of health complications in aging. Signs of malnutrition have been in some cases even mistaken for diseases. The elderly face complications such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, just to mention a few, as a result of poor diet (Consumer Union of US 2009). Lack of balanced diet makes old people attacked by obesity. Scientific studies show that if an individual is unable to balance his or her calorie consumption with one’s level of physical work, he or she gains weight. When such weight increase results in an excessive level of fat in the individual’s body, to the point of gaining the body mass to thirty or more, the individual is considered obese. The aged should be encouraged to consume a variety of nutrient-dense foodstuffs. These food materials should contain a calorie- controlled diet so as to prevent and treat this condition. Secondly, unbalanced diet results in the cardiovascular disease in a large percent of the aged population. Foods that contain a lot of fat, cholesterol as well as sugar and extremely low in vegetables and fruits tend to raise the risk of high blood cholesterol and coronary heart defects and atherosclerosis, which is the reduction of the width of arteries. This increases the individual’s danger to both stroke and heart attack. Those taking care of the old people should ensure that these people eat a lot of fruits, whole grains that have moderate content of low fat, vegetables and lean meat (Consumer Union 2010). Besides obesity, another potential danger that the aging individuals can contract due to the unbalanced diet is diabetes, particularly when the diet results in an exceeding amount of weight increase. In this case, diabetes can simply be considered as the correlate of obesity, considering that one condition may always characterize the existence of another condition. For instance, the degree in which one takes in fat affects the susceptibility to diabetes. Again, the elderly persons should maintain a calorie-controlled in their diet with a lot of vegetables, fruits and the whole grains to prevent this disease. Indeed, they can decrease their danger even more by ensuring that they remain physically active (Consumer Union of US 2009a). Various factors are associated with the obesity prevalence besides dieting. Prevalence in obesity may be attributed to the lack of body physical exercises, smoking, genetic factors and medical conditions such as psychiatric illness (Bray 2009). However, according to Barsh and Farooqi (2008), of all the factors, non-healthy eating is cited as the main cause. Thus, dieting is the main determinant. People consume food without giving consideration to the number of calories in the foods. Moreover, some underestimate the amount of calories in their diets. On the other hand, MacDonald’s meals are cited to be one of the heavily consumed foodstuffs in the current society. As a matter of fact, MacDonald’s meals comprise high amounts of calories that could, no doubt, result in obesity. For instance, Big Mac contains as many as 500 calories as well as 33 grams of fat (Bray 2009). Even intriguing is the fact that a large population is now consuming these kinds of foodstuffs. As much as 80 percent of youths are overlooking the impact calories can have on their health, by underestimating the amount of calories in their meals. This is because people have preference for foodstuff with much sugar, fat and salt People are taking as high amount of these substances as 5.3 grams of fat, 0.1 grams and 0.4 grams of salt. In most parties, it is not uncommon to see people taking these foodstuffs. The same is repeated in the restaurants. During free times, many people would still opt for taking cookies and snacks. Besides that, most people watch television while eating these snacks. This creates a worrying situation since watching television fosters overeating. As if not enough, these events are aggravated by the fact that individuals do not take enough sleep. This is particularly to blame for the increase of obesity in the mainstream American society (Consumer Union of US 2010). A study by Chen, Crott, Smith and Liu (2010) further established that early exposure to saturated fats, as well as high fructose contents, had the potential of predisposing an offspring to the reducing levels of adiposity, insulin sensitivity and increased growth rate. It has been speculated that the intake of such diets by the expectant mothers also has a significant impact on the outcomes of the born babies and the mother. On the other hand, excessive consumptions of the fat and limited intake of fructose have been associated with the failure of metabolic system, hence the early onset of obesity. In conclusion, it may not be disputed that diet has a profound impact on the health outcomes. Poor dieting habits would result in the early onset of chronic diseases such as obesity. Levels of calorie consumption have been cited to positively correlate with increasing obesity prevalence. Excessive consumption of fat and limited intake of fructose have been associated with the failure of the metabolic system, hence the early onset of obesity. Dieting limiting consequences do not spare any age. Whereas there are various factors that are associated with the causation of obesity, none have a profound impact more than dieting. The prevalence of obesity in the contemporary society is blamed on the high intake of junk food. References Barsh, G & Farooqi, S 2008, ‘Genetics and body-weight regulations’, Nature, vol. 404, pp. 644–651. Barness, L, Opitz, M & Gilbert, E 2007, ‘Obesity: genetic, molecular, and environmental aspects’, Am. J. Med. Genet., vol. 143A, no. 24, pp. 3016–34. Bray, M 2009, ‘Genomics, gene, and environmental interactions: the roles of exercises’, Appl Physiol, vol. 88, pp. 788–92. Consumer Union of US, 2009a, ‘Tips for staying independent’, Consumer Report on Health 2009. Consumer Union, 2010, ‘Good news on adult vaccines: reassuring research and clearer advice shorts that you need’, Consumer Report August 2010. Consumer Union of US, 2009, ‘Age proofing you brain’, Consumer Report on Health, vol. 22, no. 7, p. 34. Consumer Union of US, 2010, ‘Anti-aging, from head to toe: the same step that adds to life can add to age’, Consumer Report on Health, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 1-5. Chen, C, Crott, J, Liu, Z & Smith, D 2010, ‘Fructose and saturated fats predispose hyperinsulinemia in lean male rat offspring’, Eur J Nutr, vol. 49, pp. 337–343. Knai, C, McKee, M, Darmon, N, Lobstein, T & Rutter, H 2012, ‘Socioeconomic patterning of childhood overweight status in Europe’, International Journal of Environmental Resources and Public Health, vol. 9, pp. 1472-1489. Neale, A & Hayakawa, K 2008, ‘The heritability for body mass indices among and samples of monozygotic twins brought up apart’, Relat Metab Dis, vol. 20, pp. 501–506. Read More