2. Introduction
Eating disorder is a term used to
describe abnormal eating habits that
involve scarce or excessive food
ingestion, damaging people's mental and
physical health. Bulimia, anorexia and
obesity are examples of these disorders.
Interactions between the control of
motivation and self-regulatory methods
are involved in eating behavior.
However, the exact cause of eating
disorders isn't totally perceived, though
there is certitude that it may be
associated to medical conditions and
situations.
Obesity is a specific eating
disorder, wherein the excess body fat is
accumulated, leading to an increase of
health problems. People are
considered obese when their body
mass index (BMI) is greater than 30
kg/m2
. It is one of the main avoidable
death causes in the world and mainly
happens in developed countries. This
fact is due to the high consumption of
carbohydrates and fats resulting from
the use of the fast-food.
3. Causes and Consequences
Obesity increases the likelihood of various illnesses,
particularly heart diseases, diabetes mellitus (type 2),
obstructive sleep apnea, certain types of cancer,
osteoarthritis and asthma. Obesity is most common caused by
a combination of excessive energetic food ingestion, lack of
exercise, genetic, medicines, insufficient sleep or psychiatric
illnesses.
An inactive lifestyle plays a
significant role in obesity. In the world
there has been a large change to less
demanding work, physically. This is
primarily due to the increasing use of
mechanized transportation and a labor-
saving technology at home. In children,
it seems to be declines in levels of
physical activity due to less walking
and physical education. There is an
association between television viewing
time and the risk of obesity.
Concerning about its consequences, the most serious
are respiratory problems because of the fat that accumulates
on the chest, extra efforts to support the weight excess that
affect the bones and the muscles, difficulty of the blood flow
and rise in blood pressure, heart wear and sweating increase.
4. History and Arts
Obesity is from the Latin
obesitas that means "stout, fat or
plump".
The Greeks were the first to
recognize obesity as an illness.
Formerly, most of humanity fought
with food scarcity. So, obesity
historically was viewed as a sign of
wealth that was common in Ancient
Asian civilizations, in the Middle Ages
and the Renaissance, in Europe.
However, obesity is still seen as a sign
of well-being in many parts of Africa.
This has become particularly common
since certain serious diseases were
appearing.
Other cultures viewed obesity as
the result of a character flaw. The
obese or the fat character in Greek comedy was a glutton.
During Christian times, food was viewed as the sins of sloth
and lust.
During the 20th century, the populations reached their
genetic potential for the height. So the weight began to
increase much more than height, resulting in obesity. The
weight that is ideal has become lower since 1920.
The first sculptures of the human body
represent obese females, like the Venus
figurines.
During the Renaissance some of the upper
class began to show their large size, as can be
seen in Henry the VIII and Alessandro del
Borro’s portraits.
In the 19th century, the obesity views
changed in the Western world, because
slimness began to be seen as the desirable
standard.
5. Childhood obesity
Nowadays, childhood obesity
has reached epidemic levels with
increasing rates in developed and
developing countries.
Obesity rates in Canadian
children increased from 11% in
1980 to 30% in 1990. During this
same time in Brazilian children
obesity rates increased from 4% to
14%.
Obesity in pets
Obesity in pets is very frequent in
various countries. The risk of obesity in
dogs is associated if or not their owners
are obese, but there isn't an equal
relationship between cats and their
owners.
Conclusion
In my opinion, the day-to-day becomes restricted the
ingestion of foods such as sweets and fats. This is a mistake
that must be avoided. No matter the fast food consumption,
since it's periodic. It should also perform exercise at least
three times a week. Thus, it can to avoid one of the most
serious eating disorders as obesity.
