A global killer

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A global killer


Obesity has emerged as a global killer. People are getting fatter almost everywhere in the world. The World Health Organization predicts that there will be 2.3 billion overweight adults in the world by 2015 and more than 700 million of them will be obese. And it’s likely that the majority of them will be from the Middle East. The region has grown the fattest in the shortest possible time.

While diabetes is a global killer with most victims being found in rich, industrialized nations, it has lately emerged as a clear and present danger to the Gulf states. Saudi Arabia enjoys the dubious distinction of being one of the few countries, along with the United States of course, that have recorded the highest levels of obesity in the world.

Even a young and small country like the UAE has the second-highest rate of diabetes in the world, mainly because of people’s bad eating habits, a lazy lifestyle and an infinite ignorance about the disease. Three quarters of women and two thirds of men are overweight, contributing to 12 percent of the adults developing diabetes. Diabetes causes 75 percent of deaths among Emiratis. Qatar, another tiny nation, has been named the most obese in the world, with a prevalence rate of 45 percent.

This is more or less the general state of affairs all across the region, especially in nations blessed by prosperity. Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and others — each one of them is struggling with serious health problems of their populations that are directly linked to a privileged lifestyle paid for with their oil wealth. Thanks to the oil-induced prosperity of the last century, people in the Gulf have leaped across decades of development and economic progress in a short time, leaving behind the physically demanding existence of the desert for air-conditioned comfort and luxury and of course fast food. As a result, the region today sits on a gigantic health crisis in the making and a time bomb that is ticking away to glory faster than you could say McDonald’s.

A more responsible lifestyle and healthy attitude to eating must be inculcated in our children early on. This is why the role of both parents and teachers in this campaign is crucial. Eating healthy is the first step to living healthy.


http://arabnews.com/opinion/editorial/article228325.ece
 
It's hard to eat healthy when everything you buy is processed, or contains refined sugars, salts and unhealthy fats in it. It also doesn't help that fast food is a lot cheaper and much more readily available to the consumer than say, organic foods.

Obesity is linked to many things, people who are obese are also lazier. Not only in terms of physical activities but also in terms of wanting to achieve and do things, learning etc.

One could argue that this is part of Satan's plan.
 
organic foods are often more expensive and consumers cant afford to eat that way, one example is the state of poultry in most countries.. it would be great if chickens were ogranically raised but people have a hard time footing the cost..and this makes most bussiness models not viable.
i could argue that use of hormones and other methods of artificially raising the wieght of chickens has the same effect on those that consume them. joke
 
sob7an Allah I must ask this.. how is it that poor people and starving people don't have this problem of obesity for even when they get their hands on food it ISN'T 'organic' poor people eat beans and rice, legumes of the earth probably the cheapest thing on earth and Allah swt has created it in abundance in regions where meat is far and in between. Saying that organic food is expensive and that is why everyone is fat doesn't fly imho. People are mostly fat in the developed or economically stable countries.. people often view food as a decadent feast rather than means to obtain nutrients and survive. Once their body is accustomed to two tons a day worth of food it is difficult to cut down.. in the exact same manner that people who binge and purge can't stop purging even when they want to.. their body has simply acclimated to view food as a foreign substance that needs to be expelled.. and like wise the obese their stomach can't send a signal to the brain that it is full until it has three or four times its metabolic need.

I say unless a person has a genuine endocrine disorder or on certain chemotherapeutic agents.. obesity and being overweight is simply a lifestyle choice!

:w:
 
It's odd to call obesity a "global killer" when the last time I checked hunger is a much bigger problem for most of the world. I'd much rather people be obese than that they starve. Death from obesity means you've lived a long and (in at least one respect) comfortable life; death from hunger means you probably haven't had that luxury, and it kills much faster and kills much greater numbers.
 
This thread however, is about obesity. It IS a problem, you guys can't just jump into a thread and derail it because another problem is bigger.
 

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