Obesity has been a health problem that has become much more prevalent in the modern age. Diets involving high fat, sodium, and carbs with little to no exercise has only allowed this issue to grow.
A new medical journal reveals just how much the problem has grown worldwide and the health risks that are rising because of it.
A Global Issue
It has recently been found that more than 2 billion children and adults worldwide suffer from being overweight or obese and, consequently, suffer health problems from it. As mentioned, this is the result of poor diets, reduced exercise, along with growing urbanization that encourages the first two even more.
The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, along with where obesity was highest. The United States, unsurprisingly, led obesity among young adults and children with 13 percent. Among general adult obesity, though, Egypt led with 35 percent of the population out of the near 200 countries that took part in the study.
The growing problem has also resulted in a greater number of health issues, such as cardiovascular problems, with many resulting in death. The problem is made even clearer by the fact that nearly half of the 4 million reported deaths in the study were not yet obese. This shows that there's equal risk to being overweight if the same health issues come up.
"People who shrug off weight gain do so at their own risk -- risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and other life-threatening conditions," said Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, who worked on the study. "Those half-serious New Year's resolutions to lose weight should become year-round commitments to lose weight and prevent future weight gain."
Easy Solutions
These are scary numbers to look at, especially when considering that obesity has been on the rise since 1980. Fast food and increasingly stationary lifestyles have allowed the problem to grow, but it is a problem that can be addressed with enough will and determination.
One step that can help is by joining the growing number of people switching to all natural foods. It has been speculated that the contributors to obesity are the chemicals that are used in most foods that enhance and speed up the growth of both animals and plants. That, along with other health risks associated with these chemicals and hormones, is driving people to go more farm to table, looking for markets that serve naturally raised animals and vegetables. While it won't solve the problem, it is a step in the right direction.
The other obvious answer is proper exercise. In reality, exercise isn't that hard to get and it doesn't take that much of the day. The requirement for exercise to help maintain a healthy body is an hour, minimum, every day. And it doesn't even require a gym either.
There is a growing number of exercise routines popping up on YouTube and other social media sites to take advantage of. The "One Punch Man Challenge," based on the anime, which demands the challenger do 100 situps, 100 pushups, 100 squats, and a 10-kilometer (6.2 miles) run every day, is one example. It's a workout that has a simple layout, but the demands make it challenging for anyone willing to take it up.
As mentioned, these numbers are scary to think about, but hopefully, we can still work to turn that around and get back to healthy bodies and state of mind.
