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NEWS FROM THE WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE From the Office of
the Chairman
Worldwatch Issue Alert
Alert 2000 - 11
For Immediate
Release
December 19, 2000
OBESITY EPIDEMIC THREATENS HEALTH IN EXERCISE-DEPRIVED
SOCIETIES
Lester R. Brown
Obesity is reaching epidemic proportions,
afflicting a growing number of
people in industrial and developing
countries alike. It is damaging human
health, raising the incidence of
heart disease, stroke, breast cancer, colon
cancer, arthritis, and adult
onset diabetes. In the United States, the Centers
for Disease Control (CDC)
estimates that 300,000 Americans now die each year
from obesity-related
illnesses.
Reducing obesity has traditionally focused on
lowering caloric intake by
dieting, but there is growing evidence that
exercise deprivation is also a major
contributor to obesity. With metabolic
systems shaped by 4 million years of
highly active hunting and gathering,
many people may not be able to maintain a
healthy body weight without
regular exercise.
For the first time in history, a majority
of adults in some societies are
overweight. In the United States, 61
percent of all adults are overweight. In
Russia, the figure is 54 percent;
in the United Kingdom 51 percent; and in
Germany 50 percent. For Europe as
a whole, more than half of those between 35
and 65 years of age are
overweight.
The number who are overweight is rising
in developing countries as well. In
Brazil, for example, 36 percent of the
adult population is overweight. Fifteen
percent of China's adult population
is overweight.
Not only are more people overweight than
ever before, but their ranks are
expanding at a record rate. In the United
States, obesity among adults increased
by half between 1980 and 1994. Among
Americans, 20 percent of men and 25 percent
of women are more than 30
pounds (13.6 kilograms) overweight.
Surveys in China showed that during the
boom years between 1989 and 1992, the
share of adults overweight jumped
from 9 percent to 15 percent.
Juvenile obesity is rising rapidly. In
the United States, where at least 1
out of 10 youngsters 6 to 17 years of
age is overweight, the incidence of
obesity among children has more than
doubled over the last 30 years. Not only
does juvenile obesity typically
translate into adult obesity, but it also causes
metabolic changes that
make the disease difficult to treat in adulthood.
Obesity is concentrated in cities. As
societies urbanize and people adopt
sedentary lifestyles, obesity
increases. In both China and Indonesia, the share
of people who are obese
in cities is double that in the countryside. In the
Congo, obesity is six
times higher in cities.
In a Worldwatch Paper, Underfed and
Overfed, Gary Gardner and Brian Halweil
report that the number who are
overnourished and overweight has climbed to 1.1
billion worldwide, rivaling
the number who are undernourished and underweight.
Peter Kopelman of the
Royal London School of Medicine summarizes the thinking of
the medical
community: "Obesity should no longer be regarded simply as a
cosmetic
problem affecting certain individuals, but [as] an epidemic that
threatens
global well being."
Damage to health from obesity takes many
forms. In addition to the illnesses
noted earlier, heavier body weight
increases resistance to the heart's pumping
of blood, elevating blood
pressure. It also raises the stress on joints, often
causing lower
back pain. Those who are obese are four times as likely to have
diabetes as
those who are not.
As weight goes up, life expectancy goes
down. In analyzing this relationship
for Americans between the ages of 30
and 42, one broad-based study found that
the risk of death within 26 years
increased by 1 percent with each additional
pound (0.45 kg) of weight.
The estimated 300,000 Americans who die
prematurely each year as a result of
being overweight is nearing the
400,000 who die prematurely from cigarette
smoking. But there is one
difference. The number of cigarettes smoked per person
in the United States
is on the decline, falling some 42 percent between 1980 and
1999; whereas
obesity is on the rise. If recent trends continue, it is only a
matter of
time before deaths from obesity-related illnesses overtake those
related to
smoking.
Gaining weight is a result of consuming
more calories than are burned. With
modernization, caloric intake has
climbed. Over the last two decades, caloric
intake in the United States has
risen nearly 10 percent for men and 7 percent
for women. Modern diets are
rich in fat and sugar. In addition to sugars that
occur naturally in food,
the average American diet now includes 20 teaspoons of
added sugar a day,
much of it in soft drinks and prepared foods. Unfortunately,
diets in
developing countries, especially in urban areas, are moving in this
same
direction.
While caloric intake has been rising,
exercise has been declining. The
latest U.S. survey shows that 57 percent
of Americans exercise only occasionally
or not at all, a number that
corresponds closely with the share of the
population that is overweight.
Economic modernization has systematically
eliminated exercise from our
lives. Workers commute by car from home to
work in an office or factory, driving
quite literally from door to door.
Automobiles have eliminated daily walking and
cycling. Elevators and
escalators have replaced stairs. Leisure time is spent
watching television.
In the United Kingdom, the two lifestyle variables that
correlate most
closely with obesity are television viewing and automobile
ownership.
Children who watch television five or
more hours a day are five times as
likely to be overweight as those who
watch less than two hours a day. Time spent
playing computer games and
surfing the Internet in lieu of playing outside is
also contributing to the
surge in obesity.
A common impulse of those who are
overweight is to go on a diet of some
sort, attempting to reduce caloric
intake to the level of caloric use.
Unfortunately, this is physiologically
difficult given the abnormally low
calorie use associated with our
sedentary lifestyles. Ninety-five percent of
Americans who attempt to
achieve a healthy body weight by dieting alone fail.
Another manifestation of diet failures is
the extent to which people are
turning to liposuction to remove body fat.
Resorting to this risky surgical
procedure, which quite literally vacuums
fat from under the skin, is a desperate
last measure for those whose diets
have failed. In 1998, there were some 400,000
liposuction procedures in the
United States.
For many of those who are overweight,
achieving a healthy body weight
depends on both reducing caloric intake and
burning more calories through
exercise. Metabolically, we are
hunter-gatherers. Given our heritage, exercise
may be a genetic imperative.
Restoring exercise in our daily lives
will not be easy. Today's cities,
designed for automobiles, are leading to
a life-threatening level of exercise
deprivation. Our health depends on
creating neighborhoods that are conducive to
walking, jogging, and
bicycling.
The challenge is to redesign communities,
making public transportation the
centerpiece of urban transport, and
augmenting it with sidewalks, jogging
trails, and bikeways. This also means
replacing parking lots with parks,
playgrounds, and playing fields. Unless
we can design a lifestyle that
systematically restores exercise to our
daily routines, the obesity
epidemic--and the health deterioration
associated with it--will continue to
spread.
For additional information:
www.worldwatch.org/alerts/indexia.html
Copyright: 2000 Worldwatch Institute
Contact: Reah
Janise Kauffman
1776 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20036-1904
PHONE: (202) 452-1992 x 514
FAX: (202) 296-7365
EMAIL:
rjkauffman@worldwatch.org |
