Obesity Epidemic In Australia

A simple strategy such as losing five kilograms has the potential to result in 27% to 34% fewer cardiovascular related hospital admissions and deaths over the next twenty years. Obesity plays a major role in todays and the future societies health and health care system. Action needs to take place in order to reduce the effects of this health issue. A few examples of this are: Creating more of an awareness of the effects obesity has on individuals and the community can help reduce the growth of this health issue. Educating people and children more on how to create a healthy lifestyle including healthy eating and exercise will reduce obesity greatly and describing practical strategies that would enable Australian to loose weight and keep the weight down will also have a positive impact on society.

Obesity can be defined as being 20% or more over the ideal body weight for your age and height. It is a chronic disease that can lead to a number of different illnesses and other diseases . These potentially deadly illnesses include diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, coronary vascular disease, heart attack, stroke, sleep apnoea and even cancer. Obesity is becoming more common in Australia as we speak with 10% more adults being overweight or obese in Australia than in 1995. According to recent statistics 63% of adults and 1 in 4 Australian children are overweight or obese.

Obesity is the 21st centuries plaque. It is a disease spreading at a rapid rate, taking over our society; affecting us from the grass roots up. Obesity, defined as excess fat/weight causing health issues is a multifactorial issue that needs to be addresses. There are too many consequences presented by the disease, both physical and mental to allow it the continual power to destroy the lives of many, too many Australians. The alarming rate at which this disease is spreading must become a topic of conversation for our whole society. Change needs to be seen at every level.

Obesity is a public health issue that has devastatingly developed into a global epidemic. According to the World Health Organization, the prevalence of overweight and obesity is dramatically increasing worldwide at an appalling and intimidating rate with more than 1.9 billion adults aged18 years and older being overweight in 2014. Out of these 1.9 billion adults being overweight, 600 million were classified obese. While the issue regarding overweight and obesity are prevalent in all countries, the National Health and Medical Research Council stated that Australia’s obesity levels have been developing faster than any countries in the world over the past thirty years. Although obesity may have been primarily considered as a personal concern three decades ago; it is overwhelmingly a societal concern today in Australia. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare have measured that in 2011 and 2012, around 63% of Australian adults had the characteristics of being overweight and corpulence. That is over a quarter of the adult population in Australia being obese.

The purpose of schools has always been, at the very least, to train and educate children into having strong work ethics, goals, neat work habits and prepare them for the workforce. Most schools are funded in some way by the education department and raising money by selling sugary soft drinks and sweet snacks to students contradicts the fundamental meaning of what a school stands for. Childhood obesity, unhealthy lifestyles and the lack of educational awareness of healthy choices in our schools are all contributing factors that relate to the alarming statics of Australia’s poor health.

Obesity is a medical condition, in which a person’s excessive body fat accumulates to a point where it may have a negative impact on their health causing serious illness, disability and premature death. In Australia the rate of obesity has gradually increased over time, where in 2011-2012 it was found that 35.3% Australians aged 18 and over were overweight and 27.5% obese. (WHO reference)This health condition is the outcome of a range of social determinants that warrant attention. However this report will focus on and discuss two social determinants that could conceivably lead to obesity or being overweight.

There are over 1.5 million Australians with diabetes. The groups most at risk are people aged over 45 years old, overweight people, people with family history, females with the history of gestational diabetes, people who consume a diet high in sugar, and ATSI people.

The most severe stage of overweight, Obesity, is a serious medical condition that Australians cannot afford to ignore. Obesity has been linked to low self-esteem and a diminishment in the overall quality of life for the individual. (AIHW, 2010). More importantly, obesity can result in the development of musculo-skeletal problems, cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, sleep apnea, Type 2 diabetes, and hypertension. (AIHW, 2010). Of these diseases, the

A vast majority of the world’s population has been experiencing a decrease of physical activity ranging from children to adults, particularly in the U.S. However, in the recent years Australia has rouse to the top of being the country with the largest amount of individuals that are either obese or marginally obese. Numerous researchers have drawn connections between the amount of physical activities, received by students, especially, and their ability of cognitive thinking, concentration, memory, basically their overall academic level. In addition, physical activity further improves their physical stature, such as, stronger bones and better flow of blood and oxygen. Obesity has always been an ever present problem, which has risen in recent years, to the point of being a global issue, in numerous countries, mainly in Australia and the U.S.

New Zealand is said to be one of the most obese countries in relation to the size of the population. With the statistics increasing as time goes on, it has become a real issue within society that is causing the government and health boards to seriously consider and address the problem through health promotion. Obesity could be defined as "an excessively high amount of body fat (also known as adipose tissue) in relation to lean body mass" [1] and there is now evidence to prove that obese children and adults are at a great risk of suffering from short and long-term health issues. To contradict, however, we identify this health issue through the use of a 'Body Mass Index ' (BMI), which doesn 't necessarily calculate an excessively high amount of body fat in relation to Body Mass, but rather it measures weight adjusted for height, and calculated through the dividing of weight in kilograms by height in meters squared (However, this is sometimes unreliable due to muscle often not being taken into consideration). It is then based off this calculation that one can discover if they are apparently obese-otherwise the alternative option (and most reliable), is to see a doctor. However, though it is becoming a greater issue within New Zealand society, too often there has been a lack of education or a form of ignorance in relation to this health issue, in which is causing less awareness throughout society. This has meant that in light of this, there are generally two arguments in

Obesity has been one of the most worrying pandemics in affluent countries. In England, evidence has shown that there is currently a significant rising trend in the amount of adults becoming obese. From 1993 to 2011, an 11% of increase was recorded in men and 10% in women (Health and Social Care Information Centre, 2013).

Introduction: In these days, rates of overweight and obesity are growth faster in Australia. Fourteen million Australians are overweight or obese. More than five million Australians are obese. Australian adults (63%) are overweight or obese, almost 2 in 3. And children (25%) are overweight or obese. Obesity has overtaken smoking as the crucial cause of death and illness in Australia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians are 1.9 times as likely as non-indigenous Australians to be obese.More than 900,000 Australians suffer from diabetes.(NHS Choice 2015) If this tendency still continues, by 2025, nearly 80% of all Australian adults and a third of all children will be overweight or obese. It will influence individuals healthy and society development. In this essay, we will discuss the reason of obesity, and the effects and how to solution this question. (Australian Government 2012)

In addition, just over half the population of Australians are overweight or obese and with a total population of just under twenty- three million. Furthermore, those who attain an obesity level consume foods that are nutritionally poor, consisting of high levels of sugars and saturated fats (Causes of obesity module 51. n.d.). The calorie intake is set to increase from 2600 to 3000 calories per day, per person by the year 2030. The major contributors are sugars and

In today’s world television has become one of the most popular and frequently used pastimes. With the increase of technology available today people can now watch television on their phones, laptops, and tablets wherever they go. Something else that has increased in the past years are the number of obese people in the United States. In the last couple decades it was estimated that the number of obese children age 2-5 has more than doubled (5.0% to 12.4%) and for ages 6-11 it has also more than doubled (6.5% to 17.0%). In adolescents aged 12-19 the number has more than tripled (5.0% to 17.0%) and as for adults it is estimated that 70% of Americans are overweight and out of that percentage 50% are obese (Boulos, Vikre, Oppenheimer, Chang, & Kanarek, 2012). It is no coincidence that as the number of prolonged television use has risen so has the number of obese people in America. Television has a negative impact on children that in the long run can lead to obesity.

Obesity is classified as one of the extremely common and serious public health problems in the world. Overweight and obesity are the fifth leading global risks of mortality in the world (World Health Organization, 2009). Furthermore, they are one of the major factors of for a number of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer (World Health Organization, 2005). According to NHS UK, obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more for adults, and the UK 1990 growth reference curves are used to define obesity for Children (Cole TJ, Freeman JV, Preece MA, 1995). The growing challenge of obesity of Europe countries is remarkable among Asian countries .In 2008, 1.4 billion adults (35%) aged 20 and over were overweight and 500 million were obese (11%). More than 40 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese in 2012(World Health Organization, 2014). That is the global obesity situation. Furthermore, the obesity problem in the UK is not optimistic, the UK has the highest obesity rates among Europe countries, and this trend has strikingly increased over the recent years to the point where more than 20% of the population are now obese. (University of Birmingham, 2014) However, the obesity situation in Singapore is more worrisome. In 2010, 40% adults aged 18 to 69 were overweight and 10% were obese which is more than double the level seen in 1992. (Ministry of Health Singapore, 2010) This essay will