Obesity

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22.     International Obesity Task Force says, we need to stop the worldwide trend towards unhealthy junk food. While fast-food chains like Macdonalds, Pizza Hut, Wimpys, Domino’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken and many more similar international establishments are counting their annual turnovers with an overflowing cash registers, more and more people are making rounds to the doctor’s clinics and hospitals and paying huge amounts of money for a multitude of ailments arising from the fast lifestyle and the fast food they indulge in everyday. This trend of Americanised eating habits is leading to a new group of people termed “Generation XL” – meaning a generation wearing Extra-Large clothes. A store for obese Gen XL people has recently been opened in Chandigarh and many such stores exist worldwide.

 Obesity Facts and Figures

23.     The following statistics on obesity should serve as eye openers: –

• Globally there are more than 1.1 billion obese adults and the trend is sharply upwards.
• Worldwide an estimated 17.6 million children under the age of 5 are obese.
• Obesity levels range from below 5% in China and Japan, to more than 75% in urban Samoa.
• Globally 18% of adults are obese, 33% in USA and 23% in the U.K.
• India is not far behind USA with 25% of males and 36% of females above the age of 20 years falling into the obese category.
• In the USA, the medical expenditure due to obesity-related illnesses amounts to 51.6 billion US dollars and in the U.K. to 7.1 billion pounds.
• A study by the All India Institute Medical Sciences revealed that 27% of school children in Delhi are obese. A similar trend has been reported in Chandigarh.
• Fat intake in India has gone up by more than 20% over the past 50 years.
• Obesity and overweight conditions pose a major risk for many chronic diseases.
• Obese people are twice as likely to miss work.
• Researchers have found that an increase of 1 kg. over normal healthy weight increases cardiovascular diseases risk by 3.1% and conversely, shedding 1 kg. excess weight reduces the risk by 3-4%.