800 million people around the world are living with obesity.

 

4th of March is observed as World Obesity Day and we spoke to CEO Professor Pamela Naidoo and Dietitian Kinza Hussian from The Heart and Stroke Foundation. 

So according to the World Obesity Federation, 800 million people around the world are living with obesity. And then also in South Africa almost 65% of women and 30% of men are classified as being overweight or obese. So being overweight or obese increases your risk of having a heart disease or even a stroke, as well as numerous other health problems including high blood pressure or diabetes. 

Obesity is defined as abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat in the body, but it's also very important, you know, where that fat lies. 

Bear in mind checking body mass index is something which I'm sure most people are aware of, it's that quick calculation everyone can just do, which is your weight in kgs divided by your height in meter squared, so if that number is greater than 30, that's when we'd say someone's obese. But in addition to that, it's important to check your waist circumference to just measure the abdominal fat around there because there's cut-offs there that are focused on to determine whether someone is obese or not. 

To measure your abdominal fat, take a tape measure around your stomach and read it off at the level of your belly button. And if that number is greater than 102 centimeters, then you'd be referred to as obese for men, and for women, that number is greater than 88 centimeters.

The roots or the causes  run very deep and it's important for us to acknowledge that in the past, you know, we just used to speak about the way someone's eating or not exercising it can be linked to genetics and the various factors hence,  it's very important for us to shift our focus from how an obese person looks and rather focus on how it actually affects their health and being obese increases your risk for many medical conditions it increases your risk developing high blood pressure and diabetes which in turn increases your risk for heart diseases and strokes and there are many other medical conditions as well linked to it so that is what your focus needs to be on, is what the health risks are when we link it to obesity as opposed to just the fact that you know basing it on how someone perhaps looks.  "But it's a lot more than that. It's been linked to genetics. It's been linked to our environment, marketing of foods, sleep, you know, our everyday lifestyle, how we're living our lives. There's many factors, deep roots can cause obesity and you know, over the years, evidences also come out to say that specifically linked to our genes that obesity is something that can actually begin in utero when the baby is still in the mother's womb as well." said Kinza Hussain 

According to data done what they found is that people that have been obese, they've obviously had to go through a lot of mental health issues as well. And they found that being overweight or obese has been linked to bias and stigma and discrimination and all of that faced by individuals living with obesity has actually contributed to that increased morbidity and motility that we're seeing across the globe. So it definitely can have negative effect on that individual's mental health that's contributing to the big figure of 800 million people around the world. The figures are speaking for itself and we are finding women to be at a high rate of obesity.

''Part of our work is going out into the communities and doing health risk assessments. We do weight height the BMI, but in addition to that, the waist circumference. We do see that we do find quite a bit of individuals that are obese.'' Kinza added

Even just in South Africa, also quoted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation, children between the ages of six and 14 years, they found to be overweight obese that percentage to about 13 .5%. So childhood obesity is definitely on the rise and is of major concern. 

''Part of our message, this world obesity as a foundation is we actually want to just acknowledge that obesity is intergenerational.'' said Kinza

So we need to try and intervene perhaps and try and assist the mother to implement some behavior modifications. And thereafter, even if the child is born, there are definitely windows of opportunity to try and intervene to reduce the risk of obesity. 

And that's where things like your infant feeding methods comes in, where they found breast feeding can reduce the risk of overweight and obesity later on. And even in those childhood years, they are seen as a very crucial period where we can influence the child the way they eat, the way they exercise to try and reduce that risk. 

"The importance of really good nutrition, bad habits because habits form if you repeatedly do the same thing. Now you can get bad habits from the same way too. Unfortunately, there is never a quick fix for anything. I think the key, there's two steps to this in my opinion. One is that if you know the roots of the conditions. So if you're overweight and obese you need to understand why you're in that situation. Is it a combination of genetics, a medical condition or bad eating habits? And then you can decide then what is the second step. And then clearly if more of that proportion of difficulties lie with your behavioral habits on a day -to -day basis, then you have to make a very concerted effort to improve your diet. And the thing about it is it's not hard work. It's you know you could still have your nutritious tasty meals by introducing flavour into your food. So apple cider vinegar example may have some health benefits but it is definitely not a quick fix. Nor are those you know diets that are advertised and sought for huge amounts of money. It is more for profit making, because if you do lose weight which you will it will be for short periods of time and not sustainable. "said Prof Naidoo

Over the years, it's been well established that obesity is a medical condition. And it's also been established that the roots run very deep, that the causes are so much more than just not eating correctly and not exercising. But I think the message this year is just to acknowledge and understand that obesity is something that can start very early on, before babies even enters into this world. 

It's just important for us to remind each other to get in some activity, 30 minutes of any activity that you love that is something that will really benefit our overall health, our weight, our blood pressure, all those parameters that can increase our risk for heart diseases and strokes.

So the easy thing to do is accountability look at our colleagues, look at our friends, our family, if we feel they are going in the wrong direction, becoming overweight, can be very bad and cause hypertensive, which is hugely dangerous. So let's have a buddy system to take better care of our overall health. 

Contact: 

heart@heartfoundation.co.za

021 -422 -1586

https://www.facebook.com/HeartStrokeSA/

https://twitter.com/SAHeartStroke

Presenter: Jasnine Roberts

Producer: Lydia M