The Main causes of obesity in Western Life - Environmental Factors

Top 5 environment factors that cause obesity in western life are: • Food is all around usrn• Food equals lovern• Working less and eating morern• Night-time nibblingrn• Saving labour and gaining weight 1. Food is all around us We are constantly bombarded, through every advertising medium, with messages to buy and eat more food. At the same time, (not surprisingly), weight-reducing aids do an equally brisk trade. Women's magazines carry page after page of advertisements for high-fat, high-calorie foods, often on the same page as articles promoting the latest fad diets, reducing aids, or behaviour modification techniques. 2. Food equals love We are offered food and drink in almost every social situation, at work and at home. If we fail to offer food to a guest, we are failing in our hospitality. If, as guests, we fail to accept food, or fail to eat enough, we are rejecting hospitality and friendship. Mum cooks for us, and if we love her, we clean our plates. Later, when we become Mums and Dads, we send the same messages to our offspring: "I love you — so eat." Food isn't just nourishment anymore — it's all tangled up with friendship, and family, and having a good time. And, food has enormous symbolic importance in Western life. 3. Working less and eating more A great many eating habits began in times when the need for food energy was much greater than it is today — when simply surviving meant hours of strenuous physical labour. There were no home conveniences, no farm machines, and no automobiles. Every bit of food energy was needed to support life. Many of our ancestors faced lives with extremes of temperature, where more fuel was needed simply to maintain body heat. And yet, today — with labour-saving gadgets in the home and workplace, mass transportation and automobiles, and temperature-controlled environments — we insist on eating the same kinds and amounts of foods that our grandparents did. The result is creeping overweight. 4. Night-time nibbling The timing of food intake is a significant factor among overweight people. The results of one study showed that 75 % of overweight individuals ate most of their food between 4 p.m. and midnight (a condition called "night-eating syndrome"). Only 17 % said they ate three regular meals a day. 5. Saving labour and gaining weight Every time we save labour, we are cutting down the amount of food energy we need to take in. If we don't adjust our food intake, in time we'll gain weight — even though we eat the same amount as before. For example, a secretary typing six hours a day switches from a manual typewriter to a word processor. If she doesn't make any allowance for the lowered level of activity, at the end of a year she will have gained more than 3 kilos. More examples of hidden energy cuts: • Changing from regular steering to power steering can reduce energy expenditure by 20 percent — a "hidden" decrease in activity that shows up on the scale in time, if food intake isn't altered. • A 68 kilogram man switching from walking to driving the mile between work and home will gain 15 kilograms at the end of a year, unless he makes an adjustment in his food intake.