Obesity

Obesity

Introduction

The frequency of obesity has increased in the vast majority of countries on all continents, especially among young people. In France, the prevalence of obesity in adults is about 13%, and severe forms of the disease are becoming more frequent. In children, the prevalence of overweight is about 15% and that of obesity by 4%. The major issue is the persistence of obesity into adulthood justifying early treatment. The origins of obesity and overweight are numerous. The excess energy intake through diet and lack of spending in the form of physical activity play a central role (Cole, 2000). We know that the increase in portion size, the greater energy density of the diet, changing food prices encourage excessive calorie consumption. Physical inactivity (e.g. time spent watching television) is associated with excess weight. But this is not enough to explain the increased incidence of obesity and especially "inequality" of individual's vis-a-vis the weight gain. Some people gain more weight than others so that they have the same lifestyles.

There is indeed a genetic predisposition to weight gain and other biological factors (abnormal fat or control centers of the food outlet) can account for these differences in individual susceptibility to obesity (Van 2003). Several French teams Inserm and CNRS have identified genes involved in weight gain, severe obesity and complications of obesity in both populations of children than in adults: it has Obviously more than 400 genes, markers or chromosomal regions associated. More recent research interest has focused on abnormalities in fat cells, their differentiation, their proliferation, their pathological development.

Literature Review

Obese people have a lower quality of life as they age 9 and expectancy shorter than people who have a healthy weight 9-11 life. Moreover, professionals predict that today's youth are the first generation of children whose life expectancy does not exceed that of their parents, mainly because of the increasing incidence of obesity infant. Finally, obesity can become a psychological burden. Some people feel excluded from society because of the criteria proposed by the beauty industry and the media (Schwimmer, 2003). Given the difficulty to lose their excess weight, others will live great distress or the anxiety, which can go up to the depression.

Here are some facts.

Worldwide, 1.5 billion adults aged 20 and older are overweight and at least 500 million of them are obese 2.3. Developing countries are not spared;

In Canada, the most recent data, 36% of adults are overweight (BMI> 25) and 25% are obese (BMI> 30) 5;

In the United States, about a third of the population aged 20 years and older are obese people and another third are overweight 49;

In France, nearly 15% of the adult population is obese, and about a third 50 is overweight.

When trying to understand why obesity is so widespread, it appears that the causes are multiple and do not rely solely on the individual. Government, municipalities, schools, the food industry, etc.. Also bear some responsibility in the creation of obesogenic environments.

Obesity can increase the risk of several chronic ...