Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
9
Overweight, Obesity,
and Related Diseases
Gail G. Harrison and Summer Hamide
contents
Abstract .................................................................................................................. 129
The Emergence of Obesity as a Global Public Health Problem ............................ 130
Defining Overweight and Obesity..................................................................... 130
Etiology of Obesity ........................................................................................... 131
Prevalence and Recent Trends in Obesity among Populations ......................... 131
The Real Causes of the Obesity Epidemic............................................................. 133
Changing Population Structures........................................................................ 134
Urbanization...................................................................................................... 134
Globalization of Food Systems ......................................................................... 135
Consequences of the Obesity Epidemic................................................................. 135
Nutrition-Related Noncommunicable Diseases: Why Does
Obesity Matter?................................................................................................. 135
Impact on Social Disparities in Health.............................................................. 136
Impact on Costs and Health Care Systems ....................................................... 136
Controlling the Problem: The Prevention Imperative ............................................ 137
Conclusions and Study Topics ............................................................................... 138
References.............................................................................................................. 138
AbstRAct
At the same time that problems of undernutrition have not been solved in much
of the world, overweight and obesity have emerged in the last quarter century as
major public health problems globally. For most developing countries, there is thus
now a double burden of malnutrition with associated costs to health and quality
of life. More than a billion adults worldwide are now overweight, and a third of
these are overweight to a degree that classifies them as obese. The health conse-
quences include premature deaths and chronic diseases that reduce quality of life
and threaten to overwhelm the resources of health care systems widely. The causes
of the obesity epidemic include changes in the age structure of many populations,
with more adults and fewer children as fertility is reduced in most countries; rapid
urbanization with consequent decreases in energy expenditure; and globalization
of food supplies with rapid change toward diets higher in animal products, oil, and
sugars in many countries. It will require committed effort on a large scale to turn the
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