Of obesity and the malnourished

The world is growing fatter. No, concerned here is not the size of the planet but its inhabitants. Of the adult people the world over, one in eight is obese. An extensive study carried out by the Imperial College of London over four decades covering as many as 186 countries has indicated further that by 2025, the ratio will be one in five. The study did not look beyond but it will not be wrong to assume that if the trend continues, at some point obesity will take over almost the entire population of this planet.

That is a bizarre prospect. Think of zero size actresses like Karina Kapur, Katrina Kaif of Bollywood and Angelina Jolie, Anne Hathaway or Cameron Diaz assuming the size of actress-turned politician Jayalalitha. There are macho men with six packs who play the leading roles on the screen all across the globe but still the preference is mostly for heroes like Hrithik Roshan with sunken cheek. All this will vanish if all men and women add more flesh to their physiques.   

Let alone the tinsel town. What about the mundane world where people have to toil overtime in order to earn enough or a pittance for their survival? A reverse picture was presented by the study on the physical health of a number of countries like Bangladesh, India, Timor-Leste, Afghanistan, Eritrea and Ethiopia where underweight still remains a health problem. In these countries 20 per cent male and 25 per cent women weigh less than the normal.

Clearly, the issue of overweight or underweight of people have strong link with food as well as physical labour or exercise. Even in a country like Bangladesh, obesity poses a grave threat to the health of a segment of people. In cities and towns in particular among the affluent class, the threat is growing menacingly.

On that count, it is not dissociated from a kind of food economy. At the same time, it finds its relation to socio-cultural mores as well. Upstart societies are likely to be lazy but voracious eaters. Because rich foods of all varieties are within their reach, they also have to be prudent enough about consumption of foods or know how to burn calories. In the absence of either or both, the result may indeed be pathetic.

The actors and actresses earn too much but they maintain excellent figures. All because to stay in the business they have to spend hours in the gym or go through strict regimes. For the toiling mass of this country, obesity is unlikely to be a problem. Only in rare cases, where genetic overlap is irreversible, overweight may cause some problems. But if careful, it might not lead to diabetes, stroke, coronary diseases and some varieties of cancer which usually threaten the lives of obese people.

The overweight people, according to the study, have risen to 641 million in 2014 from just 105 million in 1975 and at the same time the number of underweight people has increased from 330 million to 462 million. The rate of increase in obesity and skimpiness has varied but still the latter too has not made a reverse journey yet. This means that there is need to carry on the fight on both fronts.

What about addressing the problems by targeting the issue of economic maldistribution? If the excess on someone's part can be shifted to the ones in want and therefore malnourished, the problem can easily be solved. But who will bell the cat?