The biggest problem in one of the latest research papers on obesity is not that the chance of returning to a normal weight after becoming obese is only one in 210 for men and one in 124 for women over a year. Or that for severe obesity, shedding excess weight in a year is even more unlikely. It is that researchers say current strategies for helping obese patients are failing. Thus, a team from King's College London is calling for wider-reaching public health policies to prevent people from becoming obese in the first place. There are few places in the world where the obesity epidemic is more acute than in the Middle East. Obesity and diabetes rates in the Middle East are staggering, particularly in the Gulf region. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) says 37 million people are living with diabetes in the Middle East and North Africa - about 9.7 percent of the population - while nearly 50 percent of cases in the region are undiagnosed. What's more, the IDF expects the number of diabetes cases in the Middle East to nearly double in the next 20 years. Among adults in the US, the originator of fast food, which is one of the prime causes of obesity, 68 percent are overweight or obese and as many as 100 million are trying to lose weight at any given time. Struggling with obesity means struggling to stop eating too much. The principle issue is increased intake. All fat on the human body got there after a nutrient was ingested, digested and then converted to fat because it was not needed by the body of the individual who ate it. It then becomes a catch-22. Weight slows you down and when you slow down you gain weight. However, to burn off calories by physical activity alone is difficult when compared to the relative ease of intake. Look at supermarkets. More than an entire aisle is filled with chips and sodas while chocolates and sweets fill another aisle. Multi-packs are now enormous, making it normal to eat these foods daily. Compare the supermarket of today with the supermarket of 30 years ago and shops 50 years ago and then look at the rise in obesity. It's not rocket science. Intake exceeds output, which equals weight gain. The large number of cookery programs does not help. Neither does a sedentary lifestyle. Healthy eating and exercise begin at home and in schools. Health education is a learning process, and like any academic area, it needs to be developed over time. Good nutrition and exercise habits are good for all of us – thin or not - and most of us could use a refresher course. We should demand that physical education in schools becomes obligatory and that failure to implement such programs should be treated with the same severity as failing to meet academic obligations. People need to start early at home, in classrooms and neighborhoods. The risk of a fat child becoming a fat adult is doubled at age 2-3 but over 20-fold after age nine. Behavioral interventions appear more effective if started in early childhood. One problem is that obese kids today are the norm so they don't have the same motivation as younger generations of the past. There's no long-term miracle weight loss pill. Obesity is a product of our environment and the choices that we make. People should eat to live, not live to eat. Most of us love food, but we eat much more than we need. In the end, you have to decide whether to eat as much as you like, or have some restraint so as to balance what you need with what you eat.
