Dangers of obesity

Because stories that show pictures of starving children attract a lot of attention, they are regularly appearing in world press. Horrible pictures of children whose limbs are like dried trees. It is mostly the starving children and population of African countries.

Yes there are starving children in Africa and Asia and in most other countries and even in Pakistan, but if I told you that starvation is less prevalent than over eating you will think that I am joking, and this is not in reference to the rich and wealthy only.

Having seen the starving figures from Africa and Asia on our TV screens we have come to assume that starvation is the major problem facing the world.

Statistics given at an International Conference in Australia few years ago gave a very different picture. According to Prof. Barry Popkin, a nutritionist from the University of North Carolina, the reality is that there is far more obesity than undernourishment in the world.

Among the countries, America tops the list with the highest rate of obesity in the world while Japan has the lowest. In Great Britain about two-thirds of the adult are considered obese. A fifth of these are males while almost a quarter are females. A more alarming trend is obesity amongst children which has doubled in six-year-olds and trebled in 15-year-olds.

The causes for obesity are not just junk food or bad eating habits. Interesting facts came to light at this conference including that if city planners were to plan right the chances of obesity can be reduced dramatically. An example is Japan where the public transport system is extremely efficient and the whole system is based on this transport and walking.

In America, on the other hand, Americans commute to work, drive to supermarkets and their entire system is based on commuting through private vehicles. The result is that the average Japanese man walks four miles a day while his American counterpart manages only between 1,000 to 3,000 steps a day.

In the subcontinent obesity is more than just a health risk especially for young girls. It is a social problem because parents find it difficult to find suitors for them. Obesity for these unfortunate girls becomes not only a health hazard but also a source of intense psychological and social pressure ruining their lives forever.

More surprising news is the fact that Pakistan is now No 1 in Asia for obesity growth. Here 72 percent adults are overweight and 27 percent obese, according to the 2024 Aga Khan World obesity data. There is good reason for it. Good nourishment is expensive so people buy what is cheap to fill their stomachs. Take the morning breakfast.

The cheapest filling meal is oil with flour and sugar and tea. In the morning I pass by a cheap restaurant where passing motorists sometimes stop and give money to the owner to give breakfast to the hungry men, woman and children waiting in a line. You think any one of these considers the calories before gulping down a meal for which they have probably been waiting for more than an hour. For others who can probably afford a more carefully thought out breakfast there are other elements that are adding to their obesity.

In the early days of Pakistan the use of bicycles was very common. Most people went to office on bicycles, and an average run per person who walked to office was 5 to 7 km.

Today this average has come down to 1 kilometer as there is hardly any walking and rampant use of rickshaws, bikes and online taxi services. It is not that the people of Karachi, and for that matter the whole of the country, do not like to walk. It is just that they are afraid to be on the road lest they become an easy prey to mobile snatchers and other criminal elements that freely roam the streets. Even little distances have to be covered in some kind of transport.

According to recent figures, obesity is on the rampage in Karachi. There are 28 to 53 percent of overweight and obese people in Karachi. In a Pak Sehat study consisting of 2,000 apparently healthy people presented at KU, 72 to 80 percent were found obese with 45 percent having high blood pressure and 35 percent diabetes.

All this is alarming news and points to the fact that health is much more than two full meals and a hearty breakfast. A balanced diet, it seems, is what is required to avoid the consequences of obesity.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026