Like politics, football and global warming, obesity is a topic that attracts huge attention in the media as well as talk on the street and in coffee lounges. This is not surprising since it is the most serious health issue facing the global community today.
Australia is in the top ten fattest nations globally and, like many other countries, we are struggling to control the epidemic of obesity and related chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes.
The renowned Israeli scientist, Eleazar Shafrir at the Hebrew University, coined the term “diabesity” to characterise the close link between obesity and diabetes. Today, diabesity is shaping as the biggest chronic disease epidemic in human history. It also leads to the onset of other debilitating and costly illnesses such as heart disease, certain cancers, musculoskeletal disorders and obstructive sleep apnoea, to name a few.
If being fat is the “most serious health issue facing the the global community”, the global community is looking the wrong way.
I suppose it depends on where you want to focus. In some countries obesity is a serious problem, but in many parts of the world it is near the bottom. Go to Africa or South Asia, and you won’t find a major problem with obesity, but malaria is a tremendous problem. And the article specifically pooh-poohs the two primary causes of obesity – sloth and gluttony. Go figure. We can’t address the problem until we recognize it.
“We can’t address the problem until we recognize it.”
What’s this “we” stuff, kemosabe? “WE” can’t address an individual’s sloth and gluttony.
“UK obesity expert Professor Peter Kopelman, “the causes of obesity are embedded in an extremely complex biological system, set within an equally complex societal framework”.
Obesity is a highly complex disease and nearly every drug developed for it so far hasn’t proved safe enough. We have to find the silver bullet, and only continued scientific research will get us there.”
Ahh, yes, here it is: send more money. You need high paid professors to comprehend such a complex disease.
Nope. Don’t eat so damn much. Works every time it’s tried. Third graders understand this.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to give you a mental wedgie. I was trying to make light of the fact that the author specifically ignores the only causes of obesity. I forgot my snarck key.
Sorry, Rich. You couldn’t see me smiling as I typed.