If you think soaring global obesity rates can be attributed to laziness and inactivity, think again! A study has shown that levels of physical activity have not declined much since the early 1980’s. Then who is the real culprit?
Researchers call it Greed! Yes, greed, and not laziness, is to be blamed for the obesity epidemic.
Obesity - Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Complications, Treatment
Obesity is a condition where there is excess accumulation of body fat which poses a risk to the health of the individual. It can affect children and adults.
Obesity is a condition where there is excess accumulation of body fat which poses a risk to the health of the individual. It can affect children and adults.
To address this, John Speakman of the University of Aberdeen, UK, and Klaas Westerterp of Maastricht University in the Netherlands looked at the amount of energy used through physical activity over the past 25 years in 393 people from across the US and 366 from Maastricht.
In these subjects, energy expenditure has been measured since 1982 using a technique called the "doubly labeled water method", which measures the throughput of water labeled with isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen.
By comparing the daily energy expenditure in the early 1980s with current data, the researchers showed that there has been no significant decline in the energy the people studied burned through physical activity.
The obesity epidemic had already started by 1982, but Speakman says that people have always been fairly inactive during the evenings, and that although activities such as watching TV and playing computer games might be relatively new, they have not affected overall energy expenditure.
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"If we want to reverse the obesity epidemic it would be much better to focus on trying to decrease caloric intake," Speakman added.
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Source-ANI
TAN/L
