Obesity as a Sin of Gluttony - Essay Example

? Obesity as a sin of Gluttony 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 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 the attempt to curb the health issues pertaining to obesity, various causes of obesity have been identified. Even more intriguing is the fact that some obesity cases have been attributed to low socioeconomic status, especially among children, non-healthy eating, lack of exercise and stress. Obesity does not spare age and sex; it is prevalent among children as well as adults. There are various factors that have been associated with the causation of obesity. Thus, remedies for obesity have inclined on observing a balanced diet and taking physical exercises. However, it is not uncommon for even those that observe balanced diet and exercise to be obese. These points out that there are other causation factors that are overlooked and these include genetics. This arouses concerns that genetic factors may be to blame for prevalence of obesity. The crucial question then pertains whether unhealthy eating habits often cited as gluttony or other factors such as genetic factors play a significant role as far in causing obesity. With most studies attributing obesity with reasons such as non-healthy eating, lack of exercise and stress, this paper seeks to discuss in light of a statement that obesity is a sin of gluttony. Of all the above-mentioned factors, non-healthy eating is cited as the main cause of diabetes, this is accounted for by the following reasons. According to Mark (2012), 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 to obesity. For instance, Big Mac contains as significant as 500 calories, as well as 33 grams fat (Mark). Even intriguing is the fact a large population of people are now consuming these kinds of foodstuffs. According to Mark (2012) as significant 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 trend is attributable to the fact that many people prefer foodstuff with much sugar, fat and salt (Peta, 2001). According to Peta (2001) 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 to 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. The current society is characterized by busy schedules so that people do not get enough time to sleep. Nanci (2011) explains that the association between lack of enough sleep and obesity is indispensable. This follows people who do not have enough sleep exhibit high levels of ghrelin hormone that exceptionally stimulate hunger, resulting to over eating; hence obesity. Sleep-deprived people consume about 300 calories per day more than those who take enough sleep. Arguably, ice cream proves to be the most favorite foodstuff for most sleep-deprived persons. Arguably, the dietary supply per capita varies drastically within regions and country. Again, there has been variation in these with years. The number of calories available per person increased drastically for most parts of the world, except Europe. Much of this was evidenced in United States. These values positively correlate with obesity prevalence. Despite sensitization such as by use of nutritional guidelines, the cases of the bad choice of diet as well as eating have been on the rise. For instance, United States incidences of obesity arguably doubled in 2000 compared to 1971. It is during the same time that the average number of calories intake per person increased. Secondly, obesity is attributable to lack of adequate exercising. Currently, recommendations about for physical exercises by health experts are so common, requiring people to exercise so as to have satisfactory health life. This is because exercises burn calories. Herein, current desk jobs are associated with high obesity prevalence since they make people lazy. In 1960, 50 percent of the office jobs required that their employee observe physical exercise routine. Currently, only 20 percent of the jobs instill the same. The truth of the matter is that people with weight over 150 pounds have to run for hours to burn thousand calories (Mark, 2012). Even worrying is the fact that most people are not well sensitized about the necessity of sticking to physical exercise routine. On the other hand, even the sensitized persons are not immune to laziness; laziness explains why many quit physical exercise routines. Others are so busy that that they hardly find time for exercises. Additionally, the overreliance on machines, such as vehicles and escalators and has increased the obesity vulnerability, especially among individuals that can afford the machines (SHRM, 2013). What is intriguing is that this reliance is persistently and drastically increasing. In this case, machines deny people the chances to exercise. Lack of exercises allows fats to accumulate within the body. Most vulnerable people are the employees working in an office, whose task only includes supervision work or operation of technologies such as computers. Such technologies are widely used nowadays in most offices. Employees working in such conditions will have very limited physical exercises. What worsens the situation for such employees is that they most are offered free transport; hence, do not walk. Sedentary lifestyles play significant roles in obesity. Globally there have been large changes towards very less physically demanding work (SHRM, 2013). Another common cause for obesity is stress. Indeed, the number 3of stress and depression cases have drastically increased. These positively correlate with the drastic increase in the prevalence of obesity. The appetite for foodstuffs increases when people are stressed (Thomson, 2009). According to Thomson (2009) the connection between stress and obesity is enormous. Researches reveal that stresses associated with work and schooling is the main causes for obesity. In one way, stressed persons are unable to come up with an appropriate choice of diet that suits them. It is worrying that, while in these situations, most of them opt for foods rich in carbohydrates; hence, they become susceptible to obesity. In the other way, stress initiates the body to produce excessive amounts of cortical, a substance that arouses the appetite for fatty foods. Providing a back up to this discussion, other researchers hold increased appetites and hence gluttony habits are brought about by genetic factors. According to Allison and Hayakawa (1996) genetic characteristics are considered to play an important role in triggering obesity incidences. Characteristics, such as high human appetite and slow rate at which a body carries out metabolic activities, are all determined by genes and as well as can be inherited. Under condition of food sufficiency, these two would work together and result in perfect obese conditions. Individuals found to consist of a gene associated with fat mass are considered more susceptible to obesity risks than those without the gene. Furthermore, obesity is associated with various syndromes, which are linked to genetic variations. These syndromes include Prader Willi syndrome, Cohen Syndrome, Bardiet- Biedl Syndrome and MOMO syndromes. Of the People who experience obesity in their early ages, especially below ten, about seven percent contained one point of mutations in DNA. Studies have also pointed out that over eighty percent of children born to obese parents risked obesity by about 80 percent (Allison and Hayakawa, 2009). Moreover, the hypothesis of the thrifty gene presupposes that when exposed to same environmental conditions, some groups of people are highly susceptible to obesity compared to others. According to Barsh and Farooqi (2000), it is indisputable that genetic factors cause obesity. This is because obesity has been found to track families. Individuals with obese relatives have a high chance of developing obesity. This is regardless of whether one lives together with relatives and share a common diet and exercise. As such, individuals would develop obesity even when they live separately, take different exercises and diet. Studies carried on families , and twins reveal that a significant part of the world population has obesity that is oriented towards genetic factors. Such forms of obesity are attributed to variations that are inherited. In most populations, these variations have scored a range of thirty to seventy percent, with the average standing at fifty percent. This implies that as significant as fifty percent of the variation in the mass and weight of the body within populations is attributable to genetically inherited factors. More often than not, inheritance of conditions associated with obesity is not as predictable as Huntington’s disease and cystic fibrosis, commonly inherited conditions. This is because obesity conditions observe a certain complex fashion entailing multiple genes. It is because of this complexity that obesity traits are classified as complex genetic traits. Various studies have revealed that genes associated with obesity traits act in a manner that is recessive, and this could well account for substantial variations in the mass of the body within the population. In particular, this could account for the early onset of obesity among populations (Bray, 2004). According to Kopelman (2000), it could be argued that genes carrying obesity traits only contribute to minimal variations in the body mass. Nevertheless, inherited traits play a crucial role in the determination of how individuals respond to the surrounding conditions and physical exercises, as well as diet. There are various inherited DNA variants that determine one’s susceptibility towards obesity. Despite the fact that human beings comprise genetic material, they have different genome material. A comparison of copies of similar DNA stretches reveals that as many as over a thousand bases differ. This is particularly true for single nucleotide polymorphism, abbreviated as SNP. SNPs that are identified based on the comparison of two chromosomes are common across the globe; as significant as 90 percent of the SNPs appear at a frequency of about one percent (Kopelman 2000). A substantial part of these variants do not have any functional consequences and, simply, are comparable to random spelling differences that are not significant. However, some of these forms of polymorphisms will result in the alteration of the genes’ biological functions. These could include have an impact on the duration, location or the amount of protein assembly, as well as protein structure. These alterations determine the susceptibility of individuals to conditions associated with obesity and diseases. In this regard, establishing a catalogue of such variants, as well as appreciating the interactions of the variants and environment is pivotal in recommending interventions. Information on the variants that result in obesity is limited. So far, there are two types of approaches that have been employed in the determination of variants associated with obesity. These include association studies and linkage analyses. More often than not, the approaches have focused on affected relatives, looking for segments that could be inherited. This is then often followed by narrowing on the inherited segments to test whether there could be any forms of mutation among the relatives. Optimism has been expressed that these studies would soon establish the genetic variants associated with obesity (Snyder and Walts 2000). According to Munger (2009), it is indisputable that genes associated with obesity have an impact on the way individuals carry out body metabolism or store fat. In addition, genes related to obesity play a crucial role in influencing behavior and lifestyle preferences, all of which are oriented toward obesity. This could be elucidated as follows. Firstly, some genes have control over people’s appetite, and may make people feel the urge to continue eating even when they are already full. Secondly, some genes make people highly responsive to the smell, taste and sight of food. Thirdly, some genes affect the way individuals respond to the tastes of food, shaping their preferences for a certain type of food. This could explain why some people have high preference for junk food compared to other types of healthy, delicious food. As if not enough, some genes determine the preference of people towards physical exercises. Some of the causes that have been identified include intake of excessive foods, especially those with high fat content and lack of the physical exercises. In other cases, obesity is attributed to genetic characteristics, mental disorders as well as some reasons associated with medications. Increasing levels of obesity in the society have largely been attributed to mechanization and the increased access to delicious junk foods. Other factors that have been cited to aggravate obesity prevalence at the societal level have been cited as follows. lack of enough sleep, endocrine gland disruptions (such as those originating from environmental pollution and that suppress the breaking down of lipids), reduced smoking frequencies (smoking reduces appetite hence limiting excess food intake), use of certain medications that slow down metabolism, increasing number of obese age groups, epigenetic factors such as obese characteristics genetic inheritance, reduced variation ability in ambient temperature and assortative pairing (a phenomenon where individuals with similar characteristics associate) (Sachidanandam 2001). However, none of these factors have a profound effect on the causation of obesity as genetic factors. As discussed, in one way, Characteristics such as high human appetite and slow rate at which a body carries out metabolic activities, are all determined by genes and can be inherited. Secondly, obesity is associated with various syndromes that are linked to genetic variations, including Prader Willi syndrome, Cohen Syndrome, Bardiet-Biedl Syndrome and MOMO syndromes. Thirdly, obesity has been found to track families. Studies have also pointed out that over eighty percent of children born to obese parents risked obesity by about 80 percent. Individuals would develop obesity even when they live separately, take different exercises and diet. Fourthly, inherited traits play a crucial role in the determination of how individuals respond to the surrounding conditions and physical exercises, as well as diet. Genes related to obesity play a crucial role in influencing behavior and lifestyle preferences, all of which are oriented toward obesity. Clearly, such an account of genetic factors, in relation to obesity, is beyond reproach. Unfortunately, the most common intervention measures aimed at curbing rampant incidences of obesity have focused on the sensitization of people to observe a balanced diet and exercise on a regular basis. In this regard, it is undisputable that such positions are flawed, to some extent. This takes to the drawing board the common approaches aimed at addressing rampant obesity. Indeed, there is the dire need to come up with another approach to address obesity, putting into consideration that genetic factors is to chiefly blame for causing obesity. There are various ways in which these could be achieved. The first step begins with acknowledgement of the fact that people in possession of obesity related genes would automatically become obese. If only, this implies that such a group of people is susceptible to obesity. In the ideal environment, it is necessary that such individuals work harder than others in order to maintain a healthy body mass. In this regard, it is misleading to generalize the amount of exercise and diet that people should take to keep obesity at bay. Rather, exercises and diet should be recommended based on the genetic characteristics of individuals. Moreover, there is the need to sensitize that taking exercises and sticking to a balanced diet is not all that people could do to avoid obesity. If only, it could be arguable that observing a balanced diet and exercising could aggravate obesity among some individuals. The whole scenario is dependent upon the genetic characteristics of individuals. Research should be conduct to asses the effectiveness of physical exercises and balanced diet in curbing obesity, in relation to genetic factors. Moreover, perhaps pertinent of all, is to encourage people to seek genetic counseling, before embarking on physical exercises or administering other drugs. There are chances that people are becoming obese as a result of these factors being overlooked. Generally, there are various causes of obesity, which include non-healthy eating, lack of exercise and stress. Of all the above-mentioned factors, non-healthy eating is cited as the main cause of obesity, people consume food without giving consideration to the number of calories in the foods while some underestimate the amount of calories in their diets. Secondly, obesity is attributable to lack of adequate exercising. Another common cause for obesity is stress. Indeed, the number of stress and depression cases has drastically increased. These positively correlate with the drastic increase in the prevalence of obesity. In this regard, there is the need for the society to be filled with substantial feelings of apprehension about the upward trend of obesity prevalence. This is because the social lifestyle are persistently transforming to the worst. Foodstuff companies are increasingly coming up with more and junkier foodstuffs. The western lifestyle is increasingly spreading across the world, accompanied with trending junky foodstuff feeding fashions, blame it on globalization. The lifestyle is increasingly demanding so that people are not getting enough time to exercise. The globe is entirely adopting mechanization as a transition to modernity, reaping people of physical exercises. The rising cost of living and the related challenges are pushing people to the walls and propagating stresses. All these, yet the ramification measure to should include checking on stress, exercising and eating a balanced diet. However, as indicated through research, there are other factors other than dietary factors that cause obesity. References Allison, N., & Hayakawa, K 1996. “The heritability for body mass indices among and Samples of monozygotic twins Brought Up Apart”. Relat Metab Dis 20:501–506. Barsh G., & Farooqi S. 2000. “Genetics and Body-Weight Regulations”. Nature 404:644–651. 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