For breakfast, Lucia and her brother Juan drink chocolate cereal with milk and orange juice from a pot. To class, to sit in a chair. In the patio, in the middle of the morning, a bollito with chocolate nuggets and to recline in a corner with the mobiles. Macaroni with tomato and cheese, chicken nuggets and yogurt to eat in the dining room of the school. A couple of races in Physical Education time. When leaving class, in the small shop, with their money, they buy a cola drink and some jelly beans. Homework. Sandwich with chocolate and banana cream for tea. There is no one at home, parents have not yet arrived from work. They grab the tablet or the game console and the couch, while they crack some cookies from the cupboard. In the end, late and tired of a long day of work in which they had to bite something quickly out there, the parents arrive. They heat a pizza frozen in the oven. A little ice cream remains in the freezer. They watch television a little. To sleep.
Overweight and obesity are defined as “the abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat in the body that can be detrimental to health”. Although there are genetic or environmental factors that can influence, the main cause of these diseases is precisely to consume more calories than you burn with your activity. And the vast majority of health experts qualify them – their negative effects and associated ailments are increasingly documented – already of “epidemic”.
For centuries it was an almost exclusive problem of the rich, who were the ones who could afford to eat food to spare, and even today those who suffer drag the stigma of being guilty, by gluttony or lack of self-control. Now it also reaches -and increasingly- the poor.
Obesity, a global epidemic Do we know what we eat?
Obesity, a global epidemic The ‘boom’ of the ultra-processed
Obesity, a global epidemic. Do we freely choose our diet?
Obesity, a global epidemic Do States have anything to say about food?
Obesity, a global epidemic What if we moved a little more?
Obesity, a global epidemic A problem of the rich … and also of the poor
The increase is general: according to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2016 three of every 10 inhabitants of the planet (more than 2,200 million people!) Were overweight and more than 796 million were obese. The figures continue to grow.
In the second half of the last century the most affected were the developed countries: a look at the world map in 1975 only showed obesity rates approaching 10% in places like the United States, Russia, Australia, Canada and certain areas of Europe , in addition to the special case of North Africa. Today, in all of them, the figures have shot above 20%.
