It is not just a cosmetic consideration. It is a chronic medical disease that can lead to high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, and other serious illnesses. Accumulation of excessive body fat is known as obesity. Obesity is measured and defined in terms of body mass index (BMI). Body mass index is the arithmetical way of determining the proper weight range according to the height of an individual. A body mass index of more than 30kg/m2 indicates obesity. It is then categorized as severe, morbid and super obesity in the order as the BMI increases. Obesity is a lifestyle disease which is growing fast globally. Individuals of all age, gender and ethnicity are affected by this disease. Obesity reduces an individual's vulnerability to several other diseases. However, an alarming development of childhood obesity is being realized in the recent years.
Even though we are living in a country with nearly unlimited economic power and technological advancement, it is also a country with the lowest source of applied nutritional knowledge. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity in adults has elevated by 60% within the past twenty years and the percentage for children has tripled in the previous thirty years. An overwhelming 33% of American adults are obese and obesity-related deaths have scaled to more than 300,000 a year. It's clearly an issue and a continually growing problem. The Washington Times reports that currently, over 119 million or 64.5% of adults in the United States are either overweight or obese. Often, obesity arises during childhood. As stated by the American Obesity Association (ASA), about 15.5 percent of adolescents, (ages 12 to 19) and 15.3 percent of children (ages 6 to 11) are obese. As more and more people of our nation suffer with obesity, they also have to handle major health problems such as high blood pressure, coronary heart disease and Type II diabetes that all originate from it.
