Obesity Obesity is a rising epidemic in the modern world.

The global statistics for obesity shows that its rise each year. According to Prof Dr Mohd Ismail Noor, president of the Malaysian Association for the Study of Obesity (MASO), obesity, dubbed as the disease of the new millennium, constitutes the most important public health problem we face today. On the 10th April 2010, Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai launched the Malaysian Council for Obesity Prevention (MCOP) as 2 out of every 5 Malaysian adults is either overweight or obese. Obesity occurs when a persons weight is far above his ideal body weight. It has become a major problem in many countries. Malaysia has one of the highest obesity rates in Asia and is rapidly catching up with those countries with some of the highest obesity figures in the world in example USA, Mexico, Great Britain and Australia. The World Health Organization (WHO) has highlighted that obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally, with at least 2.6 million people dying each as a result of being overweight or obese. The latest figures WHO has revealed some 1.6 billion adults are overweight and 400 million obese. In Malaysia, about 43% adults are overweight, some 20% adolescents and 26% of primary school children are either overweight or obese. Obesity is a complex phenomenon, but the main causes can be grouped into three headings; poor food choice, lack of exercise, and lack of awareness. Poor food choice is one of the main causes. People today eat more and more junk food and fast food. This food is high in fats and cholesterol, and contains too much carbohydrate. Obesity is usually caused by unhealthy eating. It is very common for us to eat junk food these days. We are so busy that we tend to have all our meal in our local fast food shops. As a matter of fact, a lot of people love eating burgers. However, they are usually of too much fact and it will not be good to your health if you eat burgers too much. The main problem of eating burgers is that you will not feel full with one burger. Yet a burger can already be enough for your meal. This is really a mismatch and there will certainly be a problem if you eat two burgers in one meal. It is important to look after our meals all of the time. There had been so much junk food in the market. It is not healthy to take junk food all the time. We can just cook at home and prepare a delicious and healthy meal for everybody.

The second main cause is lack of exercise. Most of the people have changed their lifestyle completely from one in which there was more walking, physical and outdoor activity, into a sedentary lifestyle with little or no exercise. Most expatriates and emirates take cars to work and do office jobs. Maids and foreign laborers take care of housework and manual labor. It makes our life easier but at the same time it is also important for us to do exercises. This will help us to burn more calories so that it will not be stored as fat in our body. You may wonder what the main reason of obesity is. As a matter of fact, disorder in eating habits is the main cause of the problem. If you do not control the amount and kind of food you eat, you may develop obesity. To this end you may know that your lifestyle will certainly have effect on your body weight. Your genetic makeup may also play an important role. The probability for you to develop obesity will certainly be higher if your family members have the history of obesity. As a result, you should be very careful if you family has such history. Another contributing factor is lack of awareness about good eating

habits. Mothers give their children too much choice and too little guidance in what to eat, advertising confuses many people with claim for particular types of commercial processed foods. And conflicting information about diets and healthy eating from the food industry and medical experts leaves many people puzzled. The effects on individuals and society are huge. First of all, a vicious circle is created in which children are overfed and grow up to become overeating adults. Another effect is that people who become overweight find it harder to exercise, which in turn can lead to increased eating. Many obese people suffer from low selfesteem, especially as children, which again in turn can result in comfort eating. The medical consequences are huge. Obesity can lead to heart problems, diabetes and other serious health problem, which can cost millions to treat, and which reduce can economic productivity and life expectancy for the country and its citizens. It could even be argues that obesity saps energy from the individual and the country, leading to laziness in other aspects of life. Although in the past prosperity was associated with being fat, today people are beginning to realize the cost of such a goal.

In conclusion, it seems that we will have to reassess our entire lifestyle if we are to avoid the problems associated with obesity. Despite restrictive diets and tempting advertisements, most of us instinctively understand good common-sense

eating. However, we have to combine this with more activity and with new insights into the importance of good health. There are a lot of ways to combat the problem of obesity. Of course you will need to change your lifestyle if you have the problem of obesity. You will need to start eat healthy. You should eat less junk food. Of course at the same time you should not skip any meal. If we do not take action soon, we may find ourselves paying a heavy price. You are what you eat. You eat fatty foods, youll get fat, but if you eat healthier cuisine, your body will become healthier as well.