What are the causes of obesity?

Obesity is caused by several things:  poor diet choices; lack of exercise; heredity: genetics; illnesses such as metabolic syndrome, bacteria and side effects of medications.  Some forms of mental illness can cause obesity. 

Other triggers have been put forward which include lack of sleep, air conditioning, colds, poor diet during pregnancy and believe it or not, ‘obese friends’.

What does appear to be the case is that people are eating more and exercising a little less.  Due to a change in our lifestyles, we have gradually become more sedentary.  Jobs are very different to what they were and we see more people doing office type work which typically involves sitting down for long periods in front of a computer.

We spend more time travelling to work and that tends to involve using public transport or the car.  Many people own a car and this is often the preferred means of getting around.  Whereas people may have walked to work they are now more likely to use their car.

Children too are less active: they spend much more time indoors either watching television or playing computer games and unfortunately, obesity in children is rising fast.  This may be for a variety of reasons such as lack of playing fields or places to play, parental concern about dangers outside or the popularity of computers and games consoles in general.  Plus there is so much more choice in terms of food especially sweet things which children typically love.  There is constant advertising of sweets, chocolates, fizzy drinks etc, all those types of ‘junk foods’ which children can get at school as well as at home.  These types of foods when eaten in moderation are not a problem; the problem is when they are consumed on a regular basis which is what is happening now.

Learn more about the causes of obesity below…

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