The five main causes of obesity

The World Health Report estimates that more than 300 million people worldwide are obese and that 750 million more are overweight. The estimate by the International Obesity Task Force that 22 million of the world’s children under 5 are overweight or obese are surely an indication that obesity is escalating.

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Research on obesity suggests five main causes of obesity

Overconsumption of food

Consuming more calories than our daily energy needs is considered as a possible root cause of increase of obesity in our modern society. Sales figures of the fast food ads soft drink industries is a definite indication of the increased consumption of high calorie foods. When over consumption occurs the surplus calories are stored as body fat.

Eating too many high-fat and and food containing refined sugar

There is evidence that the type of food people eat an significant role play in the worldwide increase in obesity. Research continue to link more and more metabolic and digestive disorders with insufficient fiber intake combined with the overconsumption of fats and refined white flour carbohydrates. Eating patterns like this interfere with the food and energy metabolism in the body which contribute to excessive fat storage. Associated “modern” diseases include insulin resistance, types of diabetes and obesity. These diseases are rapidly increasing worldwide.

Reduced energy expenditure

If people burn less calories than they eat, their calorie surplus is stored as fat. A simple calculation illustrate this best, if a person consumes 100 more food calories a day than the person burns, the person will gain about 1 pound a month, which could lead to a weight increase of about 10 pounds in a year. Over two decades this excessive calorie intake will cause a weight gain of 200 pounds! Lack of exercise and fitness capacity is a possible root cause of obesity.

Family influence

Family diet and lifestyle patterns are considered a major contributory cause to obesity and more specific modern child obesity. Parental behavioral patterns pertaining aspects such as diet, shopping, cooking, eating and exercise, have an important influence on a child’s eating, playing and exercising habits, their body energy demand and ultimately their weight. It is clear that family influence also extends to adult obesity, it is a fact that obese children and adolescents frequently grow up to become obese adults.

Genetic causes of modern obesity

A number of weight-related processes in the body, such as blood glucose metabolism, fat-storage, metabolic rate and hormones are affected by genetic factors. Studies of adopted children indicate that adopted children tend to develop weight problems similar to their biological, rather than adoptive, parents. Infants born to overweight mothers have been found to be less active and to gain more weight by the age of three months than infants of normal weight mothers. Research has also indicate that normal-weight children of obese parents may have a lower metabolic rate than normal-weight children of non-obese parents, which can lead to weight problems in adulthood. This all support the theory that a predisposition to obesity can be inherited. However, the fact that obesity has increased so much in the modern society appears to discount genetics as the main cause as genetic factors can not explain the rise in obesity.

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