Obesity due to poor Diet and lack of Exercise: An Introduction
The obesity is strongly linked with a growth of heart-related diseases. It may have various diseases linked with diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular as well as cancer (Hannon et al. 2005; Burke 2006; Nathan & Moran 2008).
Britain is experiencing a great menace of continuous obesity predicament. Of late, there has been record numbers of people in this country who have become obese. This tendency countrywide towards obesity has rapidly increased all over the past few decades and is well recorded by many evidenced-based studies. Regrettably, this development clearly shows no signs of betterment. If this tendency is not checked, the advantages in life expectancy and lifestyle as a result of new technologies in the field of medicine will be lost; consequently health-related expenditures will have dire consequences for the country.
Physical activity promotes bone strength and normal body growth, and improved activity has been related to reduced risk factors in health (Riddoch et al. 2009; Janz et al. 2010; Owen et al., 2010).
The health care providers can play a positive part in helping the obese patients to get rid of obesity. It is however, generally believed that poor diet and physical immobility create an energy disparity, which contribute to the rise of obesity.
Food consumption and Energy Expenditure
There have been significant changes in food consumption and physical activities over the last few decades in Britain. The changes in food consumption are well-studied than the changes in physical activities, as they have been simpler to assess in research analyses. Some instances of changes in food intake comprise the following points:
- The studies have pointed out that when the youths eat away from their families, they are more likely to intake unhealthy food (Videon & Manning, 2003).
- The intake of soft drink has shown rising tendency by more than 60% between 1972 and 1992, and comprises about 10% of the youths’ daily caloric consumption. Whilst soft drinks are quite popular in moderation, for many people they may wrongly consume for water, non-fat or low fat milk, and lower-calorie beverages.
- There are wide variety food products available in the supermarkets.
- There has been rising tendency that many people are eating outside their homes than ever before. The percentage of the food expenditure utilized outside the homes have increased from nearly 33% in the 1970s to just about 50% in the 1990s, and during this period, sizes of foods eaten both in and outside the homes have risen sharply (Young & Nestle, 2002).
- A normal fast food, drink, and dessert hold approximately 2200 kcal (MsArdle et al, 1996).
Despite the fact each of these tendencies has been related to the rise in food consumption, none has evidently been correlated to the onslaught of obesity. In fact, it is the imbalance between food consumption and energy utilized, though, as well the unhealthy food that causes obesity. Thus, modest uncompensated variations in energy consumption or expenditure for several years create major gains in weight.
Many health researchers have proposed strategies to check obesity (French et al, 2001; Hill & Peters, 1998; Crawford, 2002). To deal with the problem of better energy balance, it necessitates for the people to change their eating behaviour.
Human Behavior & Weight Management
A lot of rationales cause behaviors that give rise to overeating, poor diet, poor physical activities and obesity in the modern families. There exist quite complex biological systems which impact human hunger and food satiety. It has been argued that humans are naturally created with the instincts to love foods that are fatty, sugary and full of proteins to assure sufficient nourishment and healthy life, particularly in times of food scarcity. As well, human biology helps easy storage of foods in times of excess to have a stock in times of need. Indeed, the biological instincts for satiety are generally slight, and are not generally understood clearly. In some situations, it is simpler to intake more food than is necessary to prevent hunger anxiety signs. Eating fast food increases the chances of exceeding past the satiety signals. The human tendency towards conserving physical energy raises the demand for creation of modern technologies that help the people enhances output and decrease physical labors. However, for some people, doing exercise may run against the intuition to conserve physical energy.
The present social environment considerably helps the biological and psychological tendencies towards eating, generally causes frequent overeating. In addition, social relationships and connectivity are essential traits in interpersonal achievements and mental health. Food is considered as a vital factor for many social meetings. For the majority of the people, a large amount of food is easily available. Furthermore, grocery outlets and other types of food stores increasingly offer wide variety of foods. Many of these stores even offer quick home deliveries. In view of the fact, the customers eat more of their foods outside their homes as the restaurants' play a bigger role in creating new ideas for suitable balanced diets (See Kern et al, 1993; Quan et al, 2000; Sharp & Abdel-Ghany, 1999; Cox et al, 1998; Esparza et al, 2000; Ravussin et al, 1988; Weinsier et al, 2002).
Obesity & Poor nutrition
The poor nutrition has shown to contribute fact too many heart-related (Petersen & Rayner, 2002) and about 33% of all cancer fatalities (Doll & Peto, 1981). Malnutrition diets, together with poor physical activity have increased the levels of obesity in Britain. Nearly 66% of the British population are obese (Health Select Committee, 2004). It is predicted that eating as a minimum 5 different fruits and vegetables daily can decrease the risks of death from fatal diseases (DH, 2000).
The study has shown that each rise of one portion of fruit or vegetables daily reduces the risk of heart disease (Joshipura et al, 2001). Moreover, It is predicted that the treatment of bad health from poor diets costs the government about £4 billion annually (Agrifood Network, 2002)
Moreover, the growing westernization as well urbanization that is taking place in the majority of the countries all over the world is linked to dietary habits that is tended towards high fat, high energy foods and an inactive lifestyle of the people. This tendency is also linked with the fast modern changes in the obesity amongst the people. Moreover in various developing countries, obesity has gained significantly, and generally present in the same segment population with malnutrition. Life expectancy in these countries has risen as a result of advancements in better nutrition. However, nutrient deficiency diseases are replaced by new dangers of obesity.
A lot of foods available in the modern environment, on the other hand, are generally highly processed with added fats and sugary materials. Availability and intake of such food in the modern society need rather little endeavors, and people are constantly placed in such an environment motivates them to overeat that cause obesity (French et al, 2001).
As well, a rapid drop in cost of edible oils and sugar suggests that they are now in direct rivalry with the customary cereals as the cheapest foods all over the world. This has created a decrease in the proportion of the diet that is mainly resulted from food grains and has thus greatly increased the chances of increased world average energy intake, and consequently increases in obesity.
Binge Eating
Obesity with binge eating is shown by more weight-variation, more food disinhibition and more disturbances in eating behaviours (Sorbara & Geliebter, 2002; Wardle & Rapoport, 2001; Delgado et al, 2002) increased beginning of obese (Bulik et al, 2002). In laboratory settings, obese patients with binge eating have been found to consume more calories than obese patients without binge eating (Walsh & Boudreau, 2003).
Besides, In the majority of developed countries, the frequency of eating food outside the homes is growing at a rapid pace. In 1970, about 25% of the food money was expended on those foods which were prepared outside the homes. In the year 1995, the figures rose to 39% and are estimated to increase sharply in the coming years (French et al, 2001). This tendency towards the rise in the frequency of eating meals outside the homes and the greater food budget has led to the growing occurrence of obesity.
Generally, the foods prepared away from home are generally higher in energy, fat, cholesterol and sodium, and contain less fiber and calcium and is generally having poorer in nutritional components than at-home prepared foods. In addition, the fat content food prepared at home food has dropped significantly nearly 40% of total energy in 1977 to about 32%, however there has been no modification of the fat content of food prepared outside the homes (Lin et al, 1999). These foods make up disparities and the growing food sizes are probable causes of the growing rate of obesity in Britain. Those who binge, generally, have a greater BMI than those who resort to binge eating at home (Binkley et al, 2000). The data involving the growing consumption of food prepared away from the homes as a danger of obesity is mainly restricted to the Britain. However this may be related to other developed countries of the world. It is nevertheless, identified whether a high rate of binge eating is related to obesity in other populations of the world, where eating outside the homes might not be a danger for obesity problems.
Obesity & Physical Activity
Obesity is the outcome from energy imbalance i.e. intake of too many calories and fewer calories being burned. Nevertheless, many factors affect how many calories people burn every day. However, the most significant aspect and the most easily changed is the number of activities people carried out daily. People try to keep themselves dynamic and vibrant by maintaining a healthy weight and obesity-free. Moreover, it can also reduce the chances of various diseases. Inactive lifestyles of the people do just the contrary.
The schools play a vital part in offering physical activities for youths; however financial constraints have caused fewer physical activities, on school programs (Fox & Riddoch, 2000).
Hence, the support of healthy intake of food with regular physical activities are vital both for the deterrence of future obesity (Crawford, 2002) and also for the treatment of those people who are already obese (Noel & Pugh, 2002). Recent large multi-centre trials have shown that significant weight loss is achievable using a contribution of diet and physical activity, and can prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes in subjects at risk (Kriska et al, 2004).
In spite of all the health advantages of physical activity, the people all over the world are doing less of these activities. All over the world, about 33% people perform little physical activities (WHO, 2011). The physical activity levels of people are dropping not only in the developed countries, however also in the developing countries like the Peoples Republic of China. Moreover, it is evident that this drop in physical activity is a major cause of the worldwide obesity endemic, and consequently, the growing incidents of deadly diseases everywhere.
The health professionals are of the view that physical activities checks obesity in people in several ways (Hu, 2008):
- The human physical activities raise the total energy expenditure, which can facilitate them to have energy balance or loss of weight provided they do not resort to eat more to balance for the added calories they burn.
- The physical activities reduce total body fat retarding the growth of obesity.
- Physical activities create muscle mass thus raising the energy as a result of burning of calories and help in controlling obesity.
Relationship between Obesity, Physical Exercise, Appetite & Food Intake
It is essential for the people having a good understanding of the relationship between physical exercise, diet and obesity control management if they want to have a healthy and vigorous life. In addition, it is important to anybody who wants to control weight through physical exercise. Besides, the understanding as how physical exercise helps in controlling weight for those who are overweight. The recent developments give rise to stress on the role of appetite-regulating hormones in controlling the interactions between the physical exercise, appetite and weight management (Stensel, 2010).
The research analyses studying the impacts of quick session of physical exercise are useful, however physical exercise research is needed to establish the lasting impacts of exercise on appetite, diet consumption and obesity control. Despite the fact the studies are not prolific in this field, some studies can be accessed. Jones et al., (2009) noted a major rise in fasting plasma following about 30 weeks of exercise training in obese youths who faced a major reduction in body fat. Likewise, Roth et al. (2005) noted a sharp rise in fasting plasma in obese children who were successful to lose weight following 12-month diet and physical exercise intervention and Martins et al. (2010) noted a trend for higher post-prandial in obese youths following a 12-week physical exercise intervention. The results imply enhanced satiety following weight loss caused by physical exercise.
There are however contradictory results have been noted regarding physical exercise and ghrelin. Hagobian et al. (2008) noted that the total ghrelin were unaffected all over 3 days of overfeeding in dormant conditions though reduced when combined with physical exercises implying a decrease in desire for food. Leidy et al. (2004) noted a rise in fasting total ghrelin in the people who regularly do physical exercise and thus were capable to lose weight after a 3-month intervention nevertheless no alteration in ghrelin in weight-stable physical exercisers. In the same way, the increase in post-ghrelin have been observed in overweight youths following five consecutive days of physical exercise practices (Mackelvie et al, 2007). It is however difficult to have a conclusion on the basis of these studies. The inappropriateness are possibly can be displayed by incongruities in the participating groups and the duration of the physical exercise. It should also be noted that the changes in ghrelin after doing the physical exercises and weight loss might be counterbalanced by various changes in satiety hormones in order that an improved urge to eat in a fasting condition may be corresponded by an improved satiety response to a diet as noted in recent times (Martins et al, 2010).
Moreover, a new research study has seemingly specified how a common gene variant FTO related to obesity impacts the creation and reaction of ghrelin, the hormone causing hunger (Karra et al., 2013).
Interventions
The mainstream studies confirm that when diet and physical activities are incorporated in a weight control program, there might be positive consequences of controlling obesity. Donnelly et al (2009) suggested that an obesity control program may create an energy deficiency consisting of physical exercise and diet control. In the study where researchers prove an energy deficiency of 700-1000 kilo-calories daily, 'diet only' and the 'diet plus exercise' reveals similar deficiency. Donnelly and associates stated that this was as a result of metabolic changes that decrease any additional impact of energy spending from physical activities on the weight loss. However, in studies where the energy deficiency is 500-700 kilo-calories daily, the 'diet plus exercise' group is nearly 20% greater than 'diet only' intervention. Regular resistance training should be provided to maintain the rise of fat-free mass. Donnelly et al. (2009) recommended 250-300 minutes per week of a modest amount of physical exercise for improved control of obesity.
Conclusions
Of late much has been learned regarding how obesity is related to physical exercise and food intake. There exist much data that shows that physical exercise can have a positive impact on appetite and appetite-regulating hormones thus help a negative energy balance and the control of obesity. It should be recognized that appetite and food consumption may be impacted by various factors comprise age, sex, body constitution, physical activity levels, environmental features, individual disparities and also the quality and amount of the food. All these factors generally impact the balance between self-indulgence and homeostatic controls. However, the abundance of available studies and the rapidity at which knowledge is being promoted in this field bring the prospects that enhanced strategies for obesity might be seen in the near future.
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