Obesity is a growing problem like it or not.
Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, recently made international news with his proposed ban on large sugary drinks in the city, after citing his concerns about the effects of food portions on obesity in America.
A little ironic seeing that the city is also known as “The Big Apple”.
According to an American newspaper, The Daily News, in America, “troubles with obesity remain titanic in scope” and the epidemic is still a “sinking ship”.
If you, like me, haven’t been to the US, you can only wonder, how big this problem really is.
However, once the first lady of any country decides to release a Hip-Hop album focused on eating healthy and exercising, it kind of sets the picture of the growing problem (excuse the pun).
This is the case with America’s first lady, Michelle Obama, who has decided to focus on getting children eating healthy and exercising regularly in, what I guess she believes is a fun way.
Seemingly America has a problem, but it appears that they have identified it and is somewhat trying to deal with it.
Obesity at one point was identified as a first-world problem, but now, according to a Compass Group Southern Africa’s 2011 report, South Africa is placed third in the world obesity ranking.
According to “Worldwide trends in childhood overweight and obesity”, the problem of childhood obesity in South Africa is reaching epidemic proportions, with an estimated one out of every five youngsters suffering from obesity.
The problem with an overweight or obese child is not what they look like, but rather what major impacts obesity can cause on their health, now and in the future.
I, for one, believe the modern South African lifestyle is one of the biggest contributors to the problem of childhood obesity.
With many parents worrying about their children’s safety, they will often keep children from playing outdoors.
Growing up in the 90s, finding dozens of children walking, cycling and playing on the streets was a norm, but living in a crime ridden society where child rape hardly makes front page news anymore, many parents would rather have their children playing indoors.
Who can blame them? However, this then means children are left playing computer games or sitting in front of the TV all day and ultimately getting hardly any exercise.
With the economic situation seeing property prices rising, many young couples opt to live in high rise flats or townhouse complexes, which don’t have much space to play and run around.
How many parents are guilty of promising highly processed foods like pizza or burgers to their children as a reward for doing well at school or doing a certain chore?
America’s identified its problem, but I fear that many South Africans are either living in denial and ignorance to the growing obesity epidemic, or they just don’t care.
Well here are some facts for those who don’t know:
According to the South African Society For Obesity and Metabolism, childhood obesity is a strong predictor of adult obesity, particularly where both parents are obese.
* Twenty-two per cent of children aged one to nine years are overweight.
* Twenty-five to 28 per cent of adolescent girls are obese.
* Fifty per cent of South Africans will die before the age of 65 years from a chronic disease.
* Six-and-a-half million South Africans suffer from hypertension.
* Two-million South Africans have diabetes.
The biggest health concern among South Africans, despite HIV/Aids, should be to non-insulin dependant diabetes – much research, including that done by the American Diabetes Association, have made a clear link between obesity and diabetes.
Obesity can be an expensive disease and devastating if not treated at an early stage.
