overweight and obesity

one of the biggest problems that the world is facing is obesity which identified as excess body fat, so in this article, we will talk about the causes that lead to obesity and we will know the dangers that result from it.

 what is obesity?

 According to the World Health Organization, overweight and obesity are abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that could harm health.

A BMI is a simple weight-to-height index used to categorize overweight and obesity in adults. It is defined as the person's weight in kilograms divided by the square of his height in meters (kg / m2). 

what is overweight?

According to Wikipedia Being overweight or fat is having more body fat than is optimally healthy. Being overweight is especially common where food supplies are plentiful and lifestyles are sedentary.

  Facts about overweight and obesity

 Below are some recent global estimates of the organization.

•      In 2014, the number of overweight adults ages 18 and over exceeded 1.9 billion. More than 600 million people were obese.
• In 2014, about 13% of the world's adults overall (11% of men and 15% of women) were obese.
• In 2014 was 39% of adults aged 18 years and older (38% of men and 40% of women) are overweight.
• The increased prevalence of obesity rates in the world more than doubled between 1980 and 2014.  

There is a greater link between overweight and obesity and mortality in the world than the link between underweight and mortality. There are more obese people in the world than underweight people, and this happens everywhere except in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

Causes of overweight and obesity

 The main reason for being overweight and obese is the energy imbalance between the calories entering the body and the calories it burns. At the global level there are:

• An increase in the intake of foods that generate energy that is dense and high in fat.
• Increase in physical inactivity due to the lack of mobility that characterizes many forms of work, changing means of transportation, and the high rate of urbanization.

Changes in diet and physical activity patterns are often the results of environmental and societal changes related to the development and the lack of supportive policies in sectors such as health, agriculture, transport, urban planning, environment, food processing, distribution, marketing, and education.  

 Common consequences of overweight and obesity

 Increased body mass index is a major risk factor for noncommunicable diseases such as:

• Cardiovascular diseases (primarily heart attacks and strokes) were the leading cause of death in 2012;
• diabetic;
• Musculoskeletal disorders (especially osteoarthritis - a degenerative disease that affects the joints and causes the disability to a large extent);
•   Some types of cancer (endometrial cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, gallbladder cancer, kidney cancer, and colon cancer);

There is a link between childhood obesity and an increased risk of obesity, premature death, and disability among adults. But in addition to increasing the future risks, obese children suffer from breathing difficulties, and the increased risk of fractures and excessive blood pressure is among the early signs of cardiovascular diseases, insulin resistance, and psychological effects.