Increase in Obesity

Weight Loss & Diet Details

While often might seem obvious why a certain individual weight, is more difficult to understand why the average weight of a certain society has recently been increasing. While the genetic causes are central to understanding obesity, they can not fully explain why a culture other than fat.

 

 

This is most notable for United States. In the years just after World War II until 1960 the average weight per person was increased, but few were obese. In the two and half decades since 1980, growth in the rate of obesity has accelerated markedly and is increasingly becoming a public health problem.

There are a number of theories to explain the cause of this change since 1980. The most credible is the combination of several factors.

Loss of activity: obese people are less active in general that people thin and not by their obesity. A controlled increase in calorie consumption of the thin people do not make them less active, correspondingly when obese people lose weight do not start to be more active. The weight change did not affect activity levels.

Relative cost of lower food: massive changes in agricultural policies in the United States and America has led to a decline in food prices at consumer level, as at no time in history. In the current debate about trade policy highlight disagreements on the effects of subsidies. In the United States, production of corn, soybeans, wheat and rice is subsidized by U.S. bill farm. Corn and soybeans, which are the main source of sugar and fat in processed foods are so cheap compared to fruits and vegetables.

Marketing plus: this also played a role. At the beginning of 1980 the Reagan administration in the United States lifted most regulations pertaining to advertising to children on sweets and fast food. As a result, the number of advertisements seen by the average child increased greatly and a large proportion of those consuming fast foods and sweets.

The change in the labor force each year a greater percentage of the population spends his day working behind a desk or a computer, without doing virtually no exercise. Has increased the consumption of frozen foods dense in calories that are cooked in the microwave (very comfortable) and has encouraged the production of snacks increasingly developed.

A social cause that many believe played a role is the increase in families with two incomes, in which neither parent stays at home to look after the house. This increases the number of restaurants and take-out.

The uncontrolled expansion of cities may be a factor: the rate of obesity increases as the expansion of cities is increasing, possibly because there is less time walking and cooking.

Since 1980 the fast food restaurants have seen a dramatic growth in terms of sales and number of consumers served. Meals at low cost and intense competition for market share, has led to increased portion sizes, such as portions of french fries from McDonald's, rose from 200 calories in 1960 to over 600 calories today.