I recently read an
article about health problems in US due to overweight and obesity, and it was
actually a very scary article.
US has gone from
having about 20 states with 10-14% of their population being overweight and
obese, to all states having 20% or more of their population being overweight
and obese. It has been a few articles here in Australia lately about the
relation between genes and overweight/obesity, and sure if everyone in your
family in overweight it is a high risk you will be too but the biggest issues
is probably bad lifestyle not the genes.
Unfortunately,
Australian can’t take credit for being better than US; the prevalence of obesity in Australia has
more than doubled in the past 20 years. Obesity has
overtaken smoking as the leading cause of premature death and illness in
Australia. Our governments are talking about ban people born after 2000 to buy
cigarettes, which are great, but they have failed to tackle obesity adequately.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes and chronic kidney disease
(CKD) account for approximately quarter of the burden of disease in Australia, and
just under two-thirds of all deaths. These three diseases often occur together
and share risk factors, such as physical inactivity, overweight and obesity and
high blood pressure.
So if we don’t act now, by 2020 80% of all Australian adults and a
third of all children will be overweight or obese.
Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta
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