10 Possible Causes of the Obesity Pandemic
It’s well accepted that reduced physical activity and fast food are linked to obesity and this condition is fast spreading among populations all over the world. Many countries that boasted of populations that were slim and trim are now seeing obese people increasing in numbers. But the evidence that lack of physical activity and consumption of junk food or fast food are the main causes of obesity is largely circumstantial. To stimulate debate, experts suggest 10 other possible causes of obesity, outlined in the International Journal of Obesity.
- Sleep debt
Getting too little sleep can increase body weight. Today, many get less shut-eye than ever. It is very common to see people over-working to make ends meet or due to their search for greater success. Nobody is ever making an effort to understand the sleep-debt and make it good.
- Pollution
Environmental pollution has many effects in causing obesity in Humans. Pollutants affect the quality of food and water. They add certain steroidal substances that trigger weight gain, Further our body weight is under the control of hormones and many of today’s pollutants affect our hormones.
- Air conditioning
You have to burn calories if your environment is too hot or too cold for comfort. But more people than ever live and work in temperature-controlled homes and offices. They are so comfortable in these artificial environments that do not feel the need to exercise and burn calories. Neither are they willing to live under hot and humid conditions that can bring sweat and lead to calorie-burn
- Decreased smoking
Smoking reduces weight. People smoke much less than they used to. Smoking leads to cancer and hence we have to find ways to go around this cause and find out better ways to keep thin which are more sustainable and healthy.
- Medicine
Many different drugs including contraceptives, steroid hormones, diabetes drugs, some antidepressants, and blood pressure drugs can cause weight gain. Use of these drugs is on the upswing due to modernisation and technological advancements in the present day.
- Population age and ethnicity
Middle-aged people and Hispanic-Americans tend to be more obese than young European-Americans. Americans are getting older and more Hispanic. Middle age- leads to an unprecedented increase in weight that causes them to become obese. This is popularly known as the middle-age spread.
- Older moms
There’s some evidence that the older a woman is when she gives birth, the higher her child’s risk of obesity. Women are giving birth at older and older ages. Again mothers with one or two children due have a tendency to become obese especially if their children are delivered through caesarean sections.
- Ancestors’ environment
Some influences may go back two generations. Environmental changes that made a grandparent obese may “through a fetally driven positive feedback loop” visit obesity on the grandchildren. Obesity is thus linked to heredity and is sometimes considered a familial feature.
- Obesity is linked to fertility
There’s some evidence that obese people are more fertile than lean ones. If obesity has a genetic component, the percentage of obese people in the population should increase.
- Unions of obese spouses
Obese women tend to marry obese men, and if obesity has a genetic component, there will be still more obese people in the next generation.
There are other contributing factors that deserve more attention and study. Even more explanations include: a fat-inducing virus; increases in childhood depression; less consumption of dairy products; and hormones used in agriculture and dairy industry. There is also mounting evidence for the fact that consumption of carbohydrates lead to obesity. Carbohydrates are foods that can be converted to fats and when not burned up the fat is stored away as adipose tissue under the skin and leads to weight gain. What do you think can be other reasons attributed to this pandemic?
