In many countries, levels of obesity are rising steeply. What are the reasons for this? How can it be prevented or dealt with?

Obesity is a major affliction in our generation and a reason for a myriad of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and depression. Our bodies are not capable of processing the excess amount of calories we engorge which gets stored as fat. As this is a major issue in our society, it is important to discuss the reasons behind it as well as the measures we can take to prevent or manage it. Overweight can be linked to various factors. Firstly, food products almost bursting with sugar, salt and endless calories are readily available to us wherever we go. This discourages the average man or woman from cooking the food themselves and continuously depend on fast food for energy. Secondly, working individuals on an average spend around 10 hours working at their desk which leads to a sedentary lifestyle. This lack of inactivity reduces metabolism and contributes to weight gain. Finally, a large portion of obese individuals also suffer from psychological and eating disorders. Issues like food addiction and other binge-eating disorders can be traced to depression and anxiety. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to ensure or at least reduce the occurrence of obesity. If you check out the packets that food come in, you can learn about the caloric content and make an informed decision on whether they provide enough nutrition and keep you satiated till your next meal. In order to avoid eating unhealthy fastfood, it’s a good idea to prepare your meals, for a whole week, over a weekend and freeze them. This will help you decrease the calories you absorb and improve your diet ten-fold. If fighting inactivity is the goal, YouTube can serve as an archive of useful information and motivational videos. There is a wide array of guides available that show you how to train correctly and if needed, you can contact them directly or even hire professional trainers to help you in your journey towards a healthy lifestyle. It is ignorant to pretend that being overweight doesnot have a life-threatening impact. To my understanding, the mental and physical well-being of our citizens should be the utmost priority of our government and organisations like the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations (UN). If these entities focus their resources on creating and implementing policies to provide guidance on a global scale, our next generation will have a more favourable future waiting for them.