It’s a Wide-Wide World
Obesity and overweight have in the last decade become a global problem with some of the world’s fattest countries, belonging to the GCC. A research study published by the BMC public health, reported on 20th June 2012, placed Kuwait as the heaviest country in the Middle East followed by Qatar Egypt, UAE and Bahrain respectively amongst the fattest nations on earth.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) back in 2005 approximately 1.6 billion adults over the of age 15+ were overweight, at least 400 million adults were obese and at least 20 million children under the age of 5 years were overweight.
Experts believe if the current trends continue by 2015 approximately 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese. The scale of the obesity problem has a number of serious consequences for individuals and government health systems.
The average person in Kuwait, the second fattest country in the world behind the United States, weighs in at approximately 77.5 kg, 15.5kg heavier than the global average, according to a research report published by BMC Public Health.
Whilst identifying the problem of childhood obesity is half the battle, the factors that contribute to the rise in the number of overweight children in the region are as follows:
- Lack of exercise
- Fast food restaurants offering incentives (toys) for kids
- Malls and other popular locations being full of unhealthy food chains
- Parents being bad role models for their children
- Unhealthy food being cheaper than the healthy options
- Cultural issues surrounding eating
Among the factors, fast food is very popular amongst teenagers as it is an easy accessible source of daily meal and this is causing rapid increase of obesity in children and young adults.
Fast food so rapidly has become a routine part of their daily lives that not consuming junk food often stands out as unacceptable. Families dining out in popular fast food restaurants, toddlers familiar since early age with French fries and coke, people lining up to get newly promoted types of sandwiches and having little idea how this food can effect health or decrease the life span of a person.
Fat kids on the rise
Even the media plays a big role when it comes down to obesity. Children and teenagers spend most of their time viewing the Television or online that they become unaware of the subliminal messages being sent to them.
Couch potato kids face higher risks of obesity
We only see part of the message the advertisement is conveying to us. Constant viewing of these advertisements create a sense of mouthwatering temptations among the youth.
The media is profit oriented in promoting junk foods, where the people needs and the consequences of eating fast food is not linked back to media.
Education and teaching children about good eating habits at school and parents encouraging their children to do more physical activity, and using the media and celebrities to promote healthy habits instead of telling kids that soft drinks are ‘cool’, are the best ways to tackle childhood obesity which will in turn help reduce the obesity rate as they grow older.
nehakalvani 