The Global Obesity Epidemic: Causes, Impacts, and Saudi Arabia

This report delves into the global health crisis of obesity and overweight, highlighting its chronic nature and widespread impact, particularly in countries like Saudi Arabia. It explores the significant health risks associated with obesity, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and various cancers. The report examines the causes of obesity, such as lifestyle changes, dietary habits, lack of physical activity, and genetic factors, emphasizing the role of unhealthy diets and sedentary behaviors. It also discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related quarantine measures on increasing obesity rates. The report provides insights into the situation in Saudi Arabia, including concerning statistics on obesity among children, adolescents, and adults, and underscores the need for improved eating habits, increased physical activity, and parental involvement in promoting healthy lifestyles. The report emphasizes the importance of preventive measures, including moderate exercise for adults and aerobic fitness for children, and stresses the need for public health interventions to address the growing obesity epidemic.

OBESITY

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The two main health related issues that becomes global problem for an individual are
obesity and overweight and it is very difficult to control them. Obesity is the chronic al disease
and it is affecting an individual in the society (NHS, 2017). Obesity normally affects with the
change in lifestyle and habits of eating and this is observed by many counties like Saudi Arabia.
Children and adults are mostly affected by the obesity (Al- Hussaini et.al., 2019). Obesity and
overweight are the main reasons for causing the long term diseases like Cardiovascular and
Diabetes. The risk of Insulin resistance is very high in the obese people (Roder et.al., 1998).
According to the report of International Agency for research on cancer (IARC), in 2016 ,
the increasing the body fat directly leads to the risk of cancer. The risk of oesophageal, colon,
and uterus, and breast, rectal and liver cancer increased due to obesity. Obesity and overweight
also affect the parts of body like liver; it affects the working of the liver (Lauby - Secretan et.al.,
2016). This results in the impairment of liver function, which further results in the deformities
like increasing the level of liver enzyme, cirrhosis and it may also lead to the liver cancer (Diehl
and Day, 2017).
According to the World Health Organization, the numbers of obese are increasing very
fast. According to WHO, the number of person includes the age of 18 years and older reached to
1 billion and 200 million and there were almost 650 million people who are obese (WHO, 2016).
The number of obese among the children and adolescent of age 5 to 19 is 340 millions; they are
affected by the overweight and obese. In the year 2018, it has been found that among the
children of less than 5 years there are 40 million children affected by the obesity and overweight.
In the country like Saudi Arabia, a study was conducted on the male students of almost
same age group i.e., between 6 and 18 years and amongst them, 11.7% are affected by the
overweight whereas 15.8% are affected by the obesity (Alasmari and et.al., 2017). Almost 17232
volunteers have been appointed for the conducted study and 36.9% were declared obese among
them.
The major causes for the obesity and overweight are Physical activities, genetic,
psychological, and social and diet. The most important factor is diet, which directly results in the
obesity and overweight. Obesity takes place due to the factors like quality and quantity of the
food consumed. The foods like sweets, snacks and fast food leads directly to obesity (Hanley and
et.al., 2000). Food plays a very important role in life of an individual; it directly affects an

individual physically and mentally as well. It is mandatory for an individual to eat health food
like green vegetable, pulses and fruits, and try to avoid unhealthy food like sweets, snacks and
fast food.
Physical activity plays a positive role in the life of an individual. Lack of physical
activities results in overweight and obesity (Caspersen and et.al., 1985). Body movement in
important for individuals, as the contraction of muscles takes place. Saudi Arabia has also
experienced the economic growth and improvement in the past decades. Change in lifestyle
affects the physical appearance of an individual. Physical activities and diets are also a part of an
individual lifestyle. In Saudi Arabia people in large number are taking unhealthy food and
sweetened beverages, which results in the diseases like obesity, hypertension, diabetes and
cardiovascular diseases.
In Saudi Arabia, adolescents are majorly affected by the obesity and overweight as they
spent more than 2 hours in from of the TV or mobile screen, which increases their weight as well
as weakens their eyesight. It includes 84% of males and approx 91% of females are spending
more than 2 hours of time in front of the TV screens and mobile (Al- Hazzaa, 2018). This is
really very harmful for the people of Saudi Arabia and also impacts negative effect in the future
of the teenagers, because these are the practices which should be improved in the early age,
otherwise it may directly affect the future of an individual as well as the whole country. This
situation of Saudi Arabia reflects clearly that the daily habits of the people of Saudi Arabia is not
good, as they are spending a lot of time in front of TV instead they should spend time in physical
activities or engage themselves I the other co curricular activities. The eating habits in Saudi
Arabia should be improved. The parents play an important role in the life of children; parents
should encourage their children for outdoor activities and physical activities and should not
promote the activities related to phones and TV (Al- Hazzaa and et.al., 2011). Therefore it has
been proved that the people in the Saudi Arabia lack the physical activities and adopted the
intake of unhealthy food.
It has been evaluated in the study that the adult who are spending large amount of time in
front of tv and mobile, has the bad physical appearance, which results in the higher waist
circumference and Levels of triglycerides (Healy and et.al, 2008 and Thorp and et.al., 2008). On
March 2, 2020, the first case of corona virus has been announced by the kingdom of Saudi
Arabic. Later on the strict curfew has been announced for the whole country and also the safety

measures are to be taken for the prevention of the corona virus. The people at that time are not
allowed to leave their houses. The safety measures also include the, strict ban of travelling and
transportation and also non encouragement of the activities outside the houses.
Quarantine period is also the major reason for the chronic disease and obesity, as people
are spending their maximum time in watching TV, phones and video games and not doing any
exercise (Owen and et.al., 2010). Physical activity and exercise are always the best precaution
measures for the overweight and obesity. The dosage of the exercises is different for the youth
and adolescents. Adults require moderate exercise i.e., 150 min of walking per week or at least
75 minutes of walking per week, whereas the children require the aerobic fitness at least 60 min
per day (Church and et.al., 2011).

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