Arguments for Taking a Public Health Approach to Obesity

Contemporary
Debates

Topic: What are the arguments for taking a public health approach to obesity rather than
addressing the problem as it arrives for individuals? Discuss relevant research to support
answer.
INTRODUCTION
Obesity is complex disease which includes an excessive amount of body fat.
Although, obesity is not cosmetic concern as well as it is medical problem which result in
increasing risk of other diseases and health issues like diabetes, heart diseases, certain cancers
as well as high blood pressure. In addition to this, there are numerous reasons that few people
have difficulty or issues in avoiding obesity. Generally, obesity result from combination of
inherited factors that are combination of environment and personal diet as well as exercise
choices. This essay is based on topic: “Arguments for taking a public health approach to
obesity rather than addressing the problem as it arrives for individuals.” For better
understanding of entire topic in effective manner essay will include numerous topic related to
obesity which results in developing effectual understanding related to topic.
MAIN BODY
Obesity and overweight are explained as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation
which present risk to individual health. In addition to this, BMI (Body Mass Index) over 25 is
considered as overweight and over 30 is obese. Issues has grown to epidemic proportions
with more than 4 million people who are dying every year due to obese or overweight in
2017 as per the research of global burden of disease. Along with this, at present rate of
obesity as well as overweight is finding more in adults and children now a days. Furthermore,
from 1975 to 2016 the prevalence of obese or overweight children as well as adolescent aged
5 to 19 years which enhanced more than four-fold from 4% to 18% at worldwide level
(Obesity, 2020). Apart from this, obesity is one side of double burden of malnutrition as well
as at present most of the people are obese in comparison of underweight within every region
except sub-Sahrana Africa and Asia. Once considered a problem only in high-income
countries, overweight and obesity are now dramatically on the rise in low- and middle-
income countries, particularly in urban settings. The vast majority of overweight or obese
children live in developing countries, where the rate of increase has been more than 30%
higher than that of developed countries.