Obesity as a Global Issue - Essay Example

Obesity As Global Issue Name: University Affiliation: Date: Obesity As Global Issue Obesity is referred to a condition that results in excessive body fats and weight. This is a common problem that affects the whole world, especially in children. Older people are also not left out as they also face the high risk of becoming obese. Thus it being a health issue, there are concerns that the medical practitioners are not competent enough to handle obesity while in childhood stages (Mitchell, Catenacci, Wyatt, & Hill, 2017). Thus studies have indicated that this issue is very common is low-income to middle-class income earners in the developing countries. However, for the highly developed countries, there is a great change in the trends of obesity. According to World Health Organization (2017) report, this becomes even more alarming when the shift towards those who are living in the abject poverty is concerned. As the state becomes more pronounced, the biggest challenges will remain to be the difficulty of addressing the individuals as well as treat them or eve managing the issue of obesity. Thus the health professions at times try to compete against the most recent articles in the magazines, the most popular television reality shows or even looking at the diets of certain celebrities and for surely this has been taken as the primary prevention methods for they seem to bring more health (Karnik & Kanekar, 2015). So that this issue can be well handled or approached, as it is a global issue then it remains the responsibility of the whole society and also so many multi sectors have to combine efforts and have a number of integrated approaches which will be primarily applied to the communities. The political intervention has also to come into place to address the issue. Hence, therefore, this report will look at the technical issues that are derived from the assessment, the impact on health, the research domains, the realities of the families and their children who have been impacted by the obesity amongst the children and also the obesity amongst the adults. The issues that are covered here are the scope and the results of childhood obesity, of forgetting the measures and the standards. Also given that the definition of obesity that is universally diagnostic has not been reached, this paper also outlines the psychological issues and the social issues which revolve on self-esteem as well as self-esteem. Later in the paper, I will also reflect on the same issues but those affecting adults who are obese. First, in young children an environment that has been found to be the most suitable for their health improvement is school (Ahmad & Edwards, 2016). Schools design a curriculum that also integrates the healthy eating practices as a must factor to be observed. Apart from eating, the children are involved in various active travelers that make them actively participate in physical activities that take them all day long. This makes their bodies to be active so much that they burn excess fats. According to Brewis and Trainer (2016) some of the problems these children face all day long are the bullying and also victimization they face when taking part in the physical activities, as much as these can be seen as an opportunity for them to set themselves free of the burden of weight but at times it takes them the courage to endure the bad treatment. For those who cannot handle such treatment, they become incompetent and suffer internally. One of the efforts their teachers need to ensure is that such like children try the much they can to take part in the events even when they are free of choice. As a result, all such circumstances and events make the school to remain the excellent context for barring and sheltering the children, however, the challenge here is that the integration of some larger psychological issues for the increasing proportion of the young children who are likely to become obese or overweight is not well established. Statistics indicate that in the US, nearly 40% of their children population is currently obese or they are facing the danger of becoming obese (World Health Organization, 2017). And that there are indications that the rates of becoming obese in most of the countries are increasing at a rate of 4% in every 10 years ("Nearly one-third of the world’s population is obese or overweight, new data show going by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (2017). Biological and social processes in relation to obesity In the etiology of childhood obesity, there are some complexities and also determinants of how the children behave, thus they are also very important in looking at the whole picture of child obesity. It is evident how high intake of energies and a low expenditure of energy are the reasons to be an obese, prescription based on the diet and activities have failed to have an observable influence that can prevent obesity in children until now. Much investments and research interventions have been done to find conclusions on obesity, however, when issues of food intake and also physical activities are assessed, they restrict the conclusions made. Currently, much focus is being put on the early life and care about improving the health of children and as well as developing independent obese children. Hence the target is on modifying their behaviors that have so much relation to obesity. Jones and Ejeta (2016) observed that these behaviors can be controlled when in the stage of the womb, when in infancy, when at preschool and just before the fattiness rebound and then adolescence. The first thing to be done is to reduce the sedentary behavior and also reduce consuming drinks that are sweetened with sugar. What needs to be increased us the period of breastfeeding is also a very good start. There is this context of maternal smoking while pregnant also helps to alter any development of characteristics that can lead to obesity. The above description are dependent on the political will based on relationships ad wills with the industry for food advertisement for sugar-sweetened drinks, accessibility to the television and the computer time versus the increase in the opportunities for attending to a variety of physical exercise and lastly the facilities for breastfeeding and the policies that give support to the families. Efforts that will see an increase in the intakes of fruits and the vegetables among the children are in place however they are thought to be small but their effect is significantly positive. We should give foods and the vegetables a separate treatment; give more knowledge and the accessibility to information which reduce the emphasis on the heath. When many approaches that are considered, are not as effective as those adverts that are child relevant and also very exciting promotions of fruits and vegetables that are done until now have been found to be more effective in healthy eating habits (Ginsburg et al. 2017). What makes these adverts very effective is the fact that they are done in a way that is very appealing by combining taste, fun, humor, and action-adventure. However, studies indicate that not all adverts have been very successful given that children do have some prior knowledge about foods and hence have conclusions. These makes them to always make a comparison of the food advert and the knowledge that they have acquired, their preferences, their behavior r, the diet or the health status. A study by Laura McDermott, Gerard Hastings ad Martine Stead concluded that an advert can influence the preferences of children like for example choosing between the brands of chocolate cookies and also between cookies and the fruits (Obesity and Overweight, 2017). Penny Gordon-Larsen and the colleague Berry Popkin made the conclusion that can help the health practitioners who are looking for evidence-based practices where they deserve to invest their technical skills energy and their time that they need to invest in economic determinant, social determinants of children and adolescents obesity (Clark et al., 2017). Other considerations will include the imperatives of treatments and the mental health for the growing population of the children who are obese which is a big challenge still facing the rest of the health professionals who participate in this section of the human population. While waiting for the evidenced of large-scale controlled study trials that were being carried in America as from the year 2006, many health practitioners were relying on “do no harm” principles among others to handle the cases of the obese victims (Obesity and Overweight, 2017). However, the evidence of these trials has been being waited for close to ten years. There is need to explore the relevant approaches that are cultural in a bid to develop researches that will highly contribute to other evidence in this field. Hence urgent measures that are innovative enough are required to contribute in this study. Obesity in adults In the whole world, the adult population has also suffered the adverse consequences of obesity. Though they have the ability to control their obese condition as opposed to children who have to be reminded and made to observe all the requirements to stay healthy and physically fit. They may need to observe physical exercises regularly and eat a diet that does not include them with too much energy. World obesity at a glance In the whole world, the adult population has the highest number of obese individuals than the younger generation. One of the trends about the obese adults is that as much as the health sector is trying the best they can to see evidence-based methods practiced on all the adults, it is a challenge that some of the conditions are just hard to work on them as nothing shows to be effective as such (Kopelman, Caterson & Dietz, 2008). Some leads hint that some of the conditions are hereditary and may not be any means to alter the condition if not a major surgery being organized. Statistics show that by 2014 the world population of adults who were overweight was 1.9 billion whereas those who were obese totaled 600 million according to World Health Organization’s data repository data. It also states that the trend had been rising since the year 2010 to 2014 (World Health Organization, 2017). Looking at a few individual countries, the population of Qatar which is adult obese is 42%, in Kuwait the adult population that is obese constitutes 40%, in England they are 28%, in the northern Ireland they constitute 28% and France the obese population is 24%. Obesity in industrialized countries A fact has emerged that the most industrialized countries are no longer concentrating on the global obesity epidemic. The developing countries, on the other hand, the developing countries have been experiencing an up rise of the obese individuals to more than 30% (Gakidou, 2014). These countries currently have a battle between reducing the number of underweight citizens and the overweight citizens. The underweight citizens are the children who suffer from malnutrition due to poverty and the overweight individuals are the adult population who eat huge portions of unhealthy foods as a result of extreme poverty. It is, therefore, a double tragedy for such countries that their economic situation cannot support them. Tracing from contemporary studies such as Ordoñez-Betancourth et al. (2015) what have a greater influence on the diet in these countries are their societal norms that are regarded to food. One will expect that these countries rely on fresh foods from their farms and also fish from the rivers and oceans but rather, they eat and depend on imported processed foods derived from the western nations (Kopelman, Caterson & Dietz, 2008). The foods are too sugary and infused with saturated fats. Westernization of foods In the western nations, they are wealthier because their food processes use high technology. They also use technology to travel which includes cars, electric trains, and even buses. This makes them do very little physical activities. This makes the individuals obese, however, in the developing nations there is very little for some parts completely lack education. Supporting this position, Crino et al. (2015) noted that because of little knowledge about obesity and the human health, they have overlooked the epidemic and treated this as a sign of being able to provide enough food for oneself and the family too. Africa on the spotlight Africa is one of the places that are also hit by this unhealthy condition. Whereas when one is thin may be associated with having a dangerous disease like Aids, being very fat is seen as a show of might, wealth, and health. Here many people don’t mind becoming too fat. For their women, a very fat and curvaceous woman would be associated with beauty than the health issue (In Kushner & In Bessesen, 2014). Such countries include Nigeria, Kenya, and Gambia. NGO activities and advocacy International nonprofit organizations have come in to help many citizens from these countries to learn how to lead healthy lifestyles. Some are advocating for freeing the citizens from hunger as others advocate for keeping the individuals how to burn more fats in less expensive means like swimming, tug of war, bicycle riding, cart pulling, land cultivation using hoes just to name a few. The biggest challenge to their missions is the rising number of beauty shops that promise individuals the same results without much hustle that their slimming body creams, soaps, and lotions that have rapid results (Seidell & Halberstadt, 2015). What they fail to understand is that they have long-term negative effects on the skin and the body which includes emaciation. Obesity in America In America, obesity has been a major cause of concern in both the adults and the children. About 78 million adults are obese; also, 13 million children are fighting the epidemic. It has resulted in the health and emotional problems on a daily basis. When solution to this problem is thought about, it sometimes sounds simple but very deceptive (Consultation on Obesity & WHO Consultation on Obesity, 2000). It is because; most feel that they are helping themselves by just taking few calories away and taking regular calorie-burning activities like regular exercise will keep them free of obesity. The body has been designed in a way that it regulate the intake of the food taken in and its survival. We have organs like the stomach, the fats, the pancreas and the intestines that communicate to the brain to trigger hunger so that one may feel to eat. The same organs are the ones that will send another signal to the brain that you are satisfied and therefore you should stop. We refer to such proceed as the homeostatic system. These processes are the ones that will ensure that we feel hungry regularly but at night during sleep, the body does not feel hungry. We have the second system that is referred to as the rewards system. This one helps in promoting the food intake, it is observed from such cases like when one sees a nicely looking cooked food which triggers the desire to take the food whether or not one is hungry. Obese individuals are very weak in judging whether to take food or not at that moment they feel like taking food. For normal individuals, if they feel the cue to take food, they can decide whether to eat or not. What determines such characters are stress levels when an individual has mildly low sugars in the blood alongside other factors (Consultation on Obesity & WHO Consultation on Obesity, 2000). Another issue that may trigger desires to eat too much is the act of eating less. These may magnify the signals that regulate the appetite of the body and thus the appetite will gradually increase when one loses weight, the satiety is however reduced. Looking at the general society, experts are debating on whether factors arising from biological aspects and the society have any influence on regulating our body weights. Also, any one has a challenge of dining out. Historically, the restaurant foods have been gradually increasing and the sweating of drinks too (Stenholm et al., 2014). Whenever people think that they are having a western style meal which is characterized by big meals, grains that have been refined, red meat, drinks that are sweetened and unhealthy fats. On contrary people should look for the health cowboy type of western America foods that include fewer vegetables, whole grains, fewer fruits and even nuts. The society has a role in influencing what triggers the epidemic of obesity which includes; having more food available in many varieties and very affordable, physical demands of many opportunities of vacancies have decreased, the amount of time spent on the screens have increased including time spent on television, the computers and eve the smartphones. Other possible triggers include nutritional programming whereby mothers who are overweight and even obese are increasing risks of their unborn children for they may become obese too. Core factors include hanges in the patterns of sleeping, changes in the bacteria found in the alimentary canal and changes in the temperatures that are kept in our houses as well as the workplaces (Ochner et al. 2015). The past and the present of the obesity When determining obesity, the metrics include the body mass index or the ratio o the body weight to its height. An individual who is obese will have a number of 30 or above. The ratio of obese individuals in America is 1 in 3 adults; this is an indication of a possible toll in the health sector. These may include things like high blood pressure, the heart disease, type 2 diabetes and stroke (In Kushner & In Bessesen, 2014). A third of the American populations are overweight, this trend has been there since in 1962 to 2006 whereby adults aged 20-74 and are obese have doubled in number thus the percentage has increased from 13.4% to 35.1%. Hence statistics indicate that average adults have a weight of between 26 pounds and even more hence what they did in the 1950's; this is according to the information from CDC ("Data & Statistics", 2017). According to the American Heart Association, diseases that are caused by the obesity have all along cost over $190 billion each year to cater fair weight-related medical charges. Possible solutions to obesity The best way to control the body weight matters is through having more and repeated coaching sessions that will help them fight obesity. More of the strategies include more use of dairy foods, eating high fiber foods that help to satiate any signals that would be kicking in. Removing foods from the pantry or the fridge that may seem to be tempting, avoid foods that are high in carbohydrate content. There is need to have a management program for stress and have improved sleep, more hygiene and have ambient social support. Having frequent exercise is useful in management of support when a person is undergoing a weight loss program, there is the need to maintain the mass of muscle by engaging in frequent physical activities and also promote the fat loss though the latter is inefficient. Conclusions Looking at the above contemporary issues and facts about obesity. I find that obesity is something that can be controlled instead of letting it develop to the dangerous states that may be difficult to help even medically. Individuals have the ability and all the resources that are readily available in their environment setting. What hence needs to be worked on is the public information. The public needs to be informed of what they need to do to stay health including physical activities and a healthy standard way of eating. Young parents need to be taught on how they can ensure that their young kids stay free from obesity inducing circumstances. 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