Obesity: Are sufferers to blame for it?

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Obesity is a major epidermic in the world.  According to analysis by the International Obesity Taskforce (IOTF) in 2010, about 1 billion adults around the world are either overweight or obese.   In Europe, 60 per cent of adults and over 20 per cent of school aged children are estimated to be overweight or obese.  In the United States around one in four adults is estimated to be either overweight or obese.  Similar problems have also been observed in developing continents such as Africa which was formerly not plagued by obesity.  The issue that arises when discussing obesity is whether sufferers bring the problem upon themselves or whether they have little control over their problem.

a photo of a man
Before examining this issue raised by obesity it is necessary to consider what constitutes obesity.  A person is considered obese if his or her body mass index (BMI) is 30 or above.  The BMI of a person is established when the person's weight in kilograms is divided by his or her height in meters squared.  People having a BMI of between 25 and 29 are regarded as overweight.


People who are obese may be responsible for their problem as a result of their lifestyle .  They consume a lot of fast food which is high in saturated fat and sugar.  They do not exercise to burn these calories which their body does not need.  It is inevitable that this poor diet coupled with lack of exercise is attributable to an increase in body weight and obesity.

However, there are people who consume fast food almost on a daily basis and do not exercise but yet are not overweight or obese.  This means that other factors besides personal lifestyle may account for obesity.  Consequently people who are obese may not always be responsible for their condition.

The is why it has been argued that the genetic disposition of individuals may also play an important role in determining whether these people will become obese.  That is people can become obese because they have inherited the genes for obesity from their biological parents.  Support for this theory comes from the fact that obesity tends to run in some families but not in others.   However, this observation can be challenged on the ground that the regular diet of a family can determine whether members of the family become obese.  

All of these show that the issue about obesity is complex and care should be taken when attempting to apportion blame to individuals who are obese because they may have not brought the condition upon themselves but rather have the condition imposed on them by nature.

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