Essay on Why Is Obesity a Problem

The hot topic we chose for the focus on my final is the effects of obesity among children in Asia and how to prevent and cope with this problem that may lead to a fatal. We also focused on the psychological, legal, and social aspects of the topic. Obesity is defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health (WHO, 2011b).

Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century. The problem is the global is steadily affecting many low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings. The prevalence has increased at an alarming rate. Globally, in 2016 the number of overweight children under the age of five is estimated to be over 41 million. Almost half of all overweight children under 5 lived in Asia and one quarter lived in Africa. (WHO, 2011b).

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So here, we started our research by asking the following questions:

1. The causes of obesity among children in Asia that have been increased lately?
2. What are the effects of obesity among children in Asia?
3. How to prevent or cope with the crisis of obesity cases among children in Asia?
4. Does food advertising make children obese in that way?
5. How do Asian parents usually take care of their child's nutrition?

Obesity can be prevented from a very young age if the causing factors are known. The study to identify the factors of childhood obesity and prevention in the medical area uses many tools and methods. One of the methods to prevent childhood obesity is by predicting the potential of a child to be obese or overweight before it happens. Prediction in other words is an advanced indication based on observations, experiences, or scientific reasons (Park, 2007).

Obesity that occurs during childhood will eventually persist into adulthood and lead to many co-morbid disorders such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular, early puberty, suicide, smoking, bulimia, poor self-image, social isolation, and hypertension (Schneider & Brill, 2005). This shows that many factors of obesity come from parenting also itself.

Thesis statement.

There is also a thesis statement that talks about child obesity in Asia. Many researchers do their thesis based on the things that happen in reality and how Asian people cater to the obesity problem.

Based on the thesis that we found and read, the researcher Muhamad Hariz Bin Muhamad Adnan said that the factors that are related to Malaysian children are: sex, catch-up growth, premature birth, adiposity rebound, breastfeeding duration, soup, sandwich, snack or chocolate eaten outdoors, excessive television (TV) watching, eating junk food, eat junk food in front of TV, warm meals for supper, eating fried food and fruits, physical activity, duration of sleep, number of sibling, and parents BMI.

According to Noor (2002), childhood obesity has become a notable phenomenon in Malaysia. Maso (2011) stated that the prevalence of childhood obesity in primary schools in four of Malaysia's Peninsular Regions was 6% for both boys and girls. She also mentioned that the children aged 7 and 10 years in Selangor have indicated 6.6% and 13.8% prevalence of obesity respectively.

Many researchers believe that genetics plays a strong role in determining whether an individual has weight problems. Studies have found a correlation between parent and child obesity, although such a correlation may be due either to genetic or common environmental factors because the family shares both. More likely, genetics determines whether one is susceptible to the disease of obesity (Anderson et al., 2003).

Obesity can be prevented from a very young age if the causing factors are known. The study to identify the factors of childhood obesity and prevention in the medical area uses many tools and methods. One of the methods to prevent childhood obesity is by predicting the potential of a child to be obese or overweight before it happens. Prediction in other words is an advanced indication based on observations, experiences, or scientific reasons (Park, 2007).

This thesis aims to identify significant factors of childhood obesity in Malaysian children based on the global childhood obesity problem. The identified Factors will be used as parameters for the prediction of childhood obesity and overweight Malaysian children. The next aim of this thesis is to apply hybrid data mining Techniques for childhood obesity prediction to increase the sensitivity of the Prediction.

Justification.

During our research process, we found it very useful to combine several of our keywords because divorce is such a big topic and there is a huge range of information out there. We also tried another approach using subject headings and then limiting the search using one of the sub-headings. This process was also effective for us.

The first opinion, obesity is one of the issues that is very popular in Malaysia. It was increasing day by day. This is because nowadays many types of food are fried with cooking oil and contain coconut milk, thus contributing to the accumulation of fat in the body. The number of obese people in Malaysia is so large compared to the United States. The reason is that some parents love to provide their children with fast food such as sausages, nuggets, and burgers. The calories in that food are high. The other cause of obesity is lack of exercise. Exercise is important at least two times a week. The lifestyle of young people who spend a lot of time watching television, and playing online games without doing so much weight-loss activity is closely linked to a healthier lifestyle due to lack of exercise.

So we suggest that everyone needs to practice a good lifestyle to get a good healthy body. We have to choose a food that is low in calories, food that has vitamins, and other food that gives benefits to our body. Besides that, we must do some exercise such as jogging, cycling, or other outdoor activities. This is because if we can control our lifestyle, this obesity issue can be avoided. If someone is obese, they can easily tet a disease such as heart problems such as high blood pressure or hypertension and high cholesterol levels, diabetes, and respiratory problems such as asthma and sleep problems. These diseases are so dangerous. In conclusion, let’s do a healthy lifestyle and do not let this obesity issue happen to us.

There are also justifications for being obese and how to calculate BMI, which is the percentage of fat thacontainsis containedour body. Based on the WHO definition (WHO, 2016), persons with a BMI greater than or equal to 25 are considered overweight while those with a BMI greater than or equal to 30 are considered obese. Since the underlying data used in this study uses these cut-offs, our cost estimates are also based on these cut-offs. However, one needs to note that this commonly used WHO definition is only one possible measure of the condition. There exist several alternative measures for overweight and obesity, such as the waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio, waist-to-hip ratio, or measure of body fat. Furthermore, there have been repeated calls for a revision of the BMI. One of the main arguments made is that the onset of certain diseases associated with overweight occurs at a lower BMI than 25. Another related argument is that certain ethnicities have different body types and have a higher ratio of body fat with an identical BMI. This argument was especially made for Asian people. Already in 1994, Wang et al. (1994) found that Asians tend to have a low BMI but high levels of body fat.

The good news is that losing even small amounts of weight can lower your blood pressure and reduce your risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and other medical problems. While there are many safe and effective ways to lose weight, many people are drawn to slickly marketed fad diets and 'miracle cures' that may do more harm than good. The best way to approach weight loss is with the help of your doctor.

Reference books.

Sassi, Franco. Obesity and the Economics of Prevention. OECD, 2010.

We searched the OPAC Library Catalog using the keywords encyc# and obesity# which are located in the Encyclopaedia of obesity, Healthy Lifestyle, and the Family. This encyclopedia was not that helpful.

However, we found the encyclopedia list above next to it in the reference room. The Encyclopedia of obesity among Children is very useful in writing my paper because the article focuses on the expert opinions of the factors and effects of obesity on children. The article looks at each of the effects independently and provides a detailed explanation of the aspect of obesity that causes it.

Much of the burden of chronic diseases is linked to lifestyles, with tobacco smoking, obesity, diet, and lack of physical activity being responsible for the largest share of such burden. Research has shown that people who lead a physically active life, do not smoke, drink alcohol in moderate quantities, and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables have a risk of death that is less than one-fourth of the risk of those who have invariably unhealthy habits. Mortality increases steeply once individuals cross the overweight threshold. The lifespan of an obese person is up to 8-10 years shorter (for a BMI of 40-45) than that of a normal-weight person, mirroring the loss of life expectancy suffered by smokers. An overweight person of average height will increase their risk of death by approximately 30% for every 15 additional kilograms of weight. In ten European countries, the odds of executive summary obesity and the economics of prevention © OECD 2010 16 disability, defined as a limitation in activities of daily living (ADL), are nearly twice as large among the obese as in normal weight persons.

This article was also very beneficial because it provided information from a meta-analysis study (study of existing studies), that showed that overall children facing obesity problems and how parents take action about it. The study also concluded that obesity has different effects on certain ages and genders. All of this information supports my thesis statement by showing that obesity does have harmful effects on children.

Books.

The Asia-Pacific Perspective: redefining obesity and its treatment. Shuji Inoue and Paul Zimmet. 2000. Published by Health Communication Australia.

1. Obesity in children

The measurement of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents poses particular problems due to different rates of maturation and growth. Adiposity measures are linked to a child’s stage of maturation at the time of measurement and there are two periods when adiposity increases - about the age of 5-7 years, and in early puberty. Although a fixed cut-off can be used used to define obesity in adults, these need to be adjusted for age in childhood. Some countries

1.1 Prevention of the obesity problem.

There are three approaches to prevention. Universal prevention is based on a total population approach, whereas selective and targeted prevention strategies are directed at high-risk groups. The latter two approaches therefore require screening of individuals in appropriate settings such as schools to identify subjects and subgroups at high risk. Relevant to the Asia-Pacific region is the recent proposal by Egger and Swinburne (1990) of an ecological model for understanding overweight and obesity. It potentially represents an important new paradigm for understanding obesity as “normal physiology within a pathological environment” and signposts the directions for a wider public health approach to the obesity pandemic. They suggest that the increase in the prevalence of obesity is primarily due to the increasingly obesogenic environment rather than ‘pathology’ in metabolic defects or genetic mutations within individuals. Thus, interventions aimed at creating environments that facilitate and promote behavioral changes in terms of diet and exercise are important in the prevention of obesity.

Obesity is caused by an imbalance in energy input versus output, resulting in a positive energy balance. The positive energy balance needed for obesity to develop is so small that individuals usually do not notice consuming it. These books teach the user to get information and facts about obesity. Either it gives the people awareness about the obesity that may lead to fatal. We live once, better cure than care.

Next is the book that we searched is Clinical obesity in adults and children. Edited by Peter G. Kopelman, Ian D. Caterson and William H. Dietz. Third edition. Wiley-Blackwell. 2010. The UK.

2. Clinical obesity in aadultsand children

The definition of obesity is a critical element in a book on the clinical aspects of obesity. Obesity-related healthcare costs are estimated at 1-10% of total healthcare costs, depending on obesity rates. Obesity has a large societal impact. Obese subjects more often have a social and physical disability and have therefore, on average, a lower quality of life. Although obese subjects have a reduced life expectancy, they also have an increased number of unhealthy life-years.

Body mass index

The BMI is calculated as body weight (kg) divided by the square of body height (m). Body weight and height are measured with the participant standing without shoes and heavy outer garments. For the height measurement, if participants are too high push their heels softly to the wall or the back of the audiometer. Because some authors subtract 1 or 1.5kg for light clothing, the basis for the measurement and calculation should be explicit. In practice, the inclusion of patients in treatment programs may differ. Because differences in weight between individuals are only partly due to variations in body fat, many people object to the use of weight or indices based on height and weight to discriminate between overweight and normal weight people. In addition, people get fatter when they get older even when their body weights are stable

Book of Childhood obesity: ethical and policy issues. Kristin Voigt, Stuard G. Nicholls, Garrath Williams. Oxford University Press. New York. 2014.