By 2030, almost one in two adults will be obese, and almost one in four will have morbid obesity.
Climate change is not the only event that gives us dire projections for the next decade. As frightening as the defrosting of the poles, from an economic as well as a health perspective, it is an expected continued increase in obesity, including morbid obesity, among adults.
An important team of medical scientists, backed by a New York Times note, has projected that by 2030, almost one in two adults will be obese and almost one in four will suffer morbid obesity.
Similarly, the team projected that, in many geographical locations, the prevalence of severe obesity will be greater than one adult in four.
Given the role that obesity plays in promoting many chronic, disabling and often fatal diseases, these are terrible predictions. However, as with climate change, not enough is being done to avoid the potentially disastrous results of obesity expansion, say obesity specialists.
Well-intentioned efforts, such as limiting access to soda with huge sugar portions, are effectively thwarted by industries capable of reducing the impact of the educational efforts of health departments that have tiny budgets in comparison. With rare exceptions, the sugar and beverage industries have blocked almost all attempts to add excise duties to sugary drinks.
However, these types of changes are not enough to make a significant difference in the obesity prognosis for society. On the contrary, educational changes are needed with respect to food, since the current trend has encouraged a steady rise towards a weight and health disaster. As the new report clearly demonstrated, society was not always so fat; Since 1990, the prevalence of obesity has doubled.
People who choose to blame genetics choose to deceive themselves. Our genetics have not changed in the last 30 years. Rather, what has changed is the environment in which our genes now work.
Fast food is very cheap and easily accessible. We eat more, consume more foods high in fat, sugar and salt, and the size of our portions is larger.
You don’t even have to leave home to eat food prepared in a restaurant, you just have to call and the food is delivered to your home. In fact there are several mobile apps that deliver food to your door in minutes.
As a society, we also eat more snacks, a habit that begins since young children can feed themselves.
People eat snacks all day. Eating snacks is normal at these geographical points. In France, you never see anyone eating on a bus.
We also eat more highly processed foods, which have been shown to encourage weight gain, thanks to their generally high levels of calories, sugar and fat.
A recent study showed that even when eating by controlling weight, eating many processed foods increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Through commerce and advertising, we constantly sell food that we didn’t even know we wanted. These are immediate rewards. We are not thinking about the future, so it is projected to more than half of the obese population in 10 years.
Unless something is done to reverse this trend, obesity will be the new normal. We live in an obesogenic environment.
While there is no single action that provides a solution to the problem, the limitation of sugary drinks is key, because they are the largest source of added sugar in the diet and are strongly linked to weight gain and health problems. When people drink their calories, they don’t feel as full as when they consume solid foods, so they end up eating more.
This also applies to sweet drinks without calories. Although the cause is still unknown, the link between drinking and higher calorie intake can also be applied to beverages with non-calorie or low-calorie sweeteners.
Encouraging restaurants to gradually reduce the amount of fat, sugar and calories in the meals they serve could help curb weight gain in society. Menus could have healthier, lower-calorie meals as the default option. But restaurants usually have portions with more calories and quantity than we should eat and many times we as consumers demand dishes with too generous amounts of food, it is in us to demand something different.
Controlling portion sizes is another very important step. Large portions are especially motivating for low-income people who reasonably want to get more calories for a low cost. Low-income groups already have the highest obesity rates and, according to the new projections, are the groups most likely to experience a growing prevalence of morbid obesity and obesity.
Another approach that could reverse the growing projections of obesity could be to limit meat intake. If we get meat from the daily diet, it would help both the environment and weight loss.
Prevention is the way to go. Children are not born obese, but we can already see excessive weight gain after 2 years. Changes in the food environment are needed. It is difficult for people to voluntarily change their behavior.
Educationbased on how to feed is key and with so much misinformation it is not always easy to know how to handle ourselves. Why in Alive We re-educate you so you can have a healthy diet, without suffering or starving, changing your quality of life.