The Causes and Effects of Obesity

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The health of every individual is essential for maintaining good quality of life. Ignoring this will result in the existence of unhealthy people; eventually making life difficult. In contemporary society, obesity has been the main concern of worldwide health organisations for it initiates a society with poor health conditions. It is thus important to recognise that obesity contains various causes which lead to numerous effects on individuals in a society. This essay will examine the causes of obesity in terms of unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle, as well as the effects through health and social perspectives. One of the major causes of obesity is the unhealthy diet of an individual. Taking in more calories than the body can burn to release energy, results in the excess calories being stored as body weight (World Obesity Federation, 2012). Facts founded by Oliver (2006) about obese children showed that “90% of children eat more than the recommended intake of saturated fat every day.” (p.1). An unhealthy diet also includes the irregular meals a person has. Breakfast is the main compulsory meal of a day as it provides the initial energy for a person (ibid.). Other meals should not exceed the amount of energy provided by the first meal for at the end of the day, people no longer perform as much work to enable the body to burn calories, hence energy is stored (World Obesity Federation, 2012). Research shows that twenty-six percent of obese children do not eat breakfast (Oliver, 2006). The President and Fellows of Harvard College (2014) stated that the “incessant and unavoidable marketing of unhealthy foods and sugary drinks” (p.5) discourage people to keep a healthy diet. Thus, obesity can be caused by the unhealthy diet of an individual. Another cause is the sedentary lifestyle lived by various individuals. As a result of modernisation, most people migrate from rural

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