Posted on 08/31/2009 6:23:10 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
(Do permissive attitudes about weight contribute to the rise in rampant fatness?)
An obesity epidemic is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about health problems in Africa. You're far more likely to associate the region with infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria, or starvation and malnutrition. In fact, though, the past two decades have seen a dramatic increase in obesity in sub-Saharan Africa. In South Africa alone, 64 percent of the black population and 50 percent of the white population are overweight or obese, according to a study by the International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO). The Ugandan Heart Institute predicts that obesity-related heart disease will be the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa by 2020. Complicating the picture are social attitudes that make being overweight seem harmless, if not explicitly attractive.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
This is not to say that no one is starving anymore in Africa. “This region may have started to experience what’s called a ‘double burden’ … with malnutrition on the one hand and a growing prevalence of obesity on the other,” explained Eduardo Villamor, assistant professor of international nutrition at Harvard. Malnourishment—in the form of both starvation and overconsumption of cheap and fried foods—is increasingly pandemic in Africa. This double whammy is largely due to increasing urbanization. As jobs have moved out of rural areas and into cities, the health of many Africans has suffered. Prof. Arne Astrup of the faculty of life sciences at the University of Copenhagen (and president of the IASO) explains that in rural communities, people were used to large amounts of physical labor and walking as well as an abundance of fruits and healthy grains to eat. In the cities, they encountered a new world of less energy-demanding jobs and a plentiful supply of fried, cheap meats laden with trans fats.
Despite the growing problem, many sub-Saharan Africans do not find the region’s increasing waistline to be of concern. Instead, obesity and fatness in general are widely viewed as a positive. Prof. Philip James, chairman of the International Obesity Task Force, found that the “index of affluence and power is linked to one’s size.” In other words, bigger is better, even if its unhealthy. HIV/AIDS is another unlikely factor in the acceptance of obesity. The virus, known as “slim disease” throughout Africa, is strongly associated with weight loss. So being fat is viewed as a “great thing because it means you don’t have HIV,” says James. Some Africans, he adds, purposely gain large amounts of weight to prove that they don’t have the disease.
Cultural attitudes about fatness take a special toll on women. Astrup says that women, especially in black populations, think being overweight is “something that is beautiful and attractive.” As a result, 75 percent of black women in South Africa between the ages of 18 and 65 are overweight or obese, according to IASO. Among certain tribes in Nigeria, women are traditionally fattened up before marriage to make them seem more attractive and healthy to their future husbands. Also contributing to the weight problem among Nigerian women: younger women there are not allowed to play sports or walk outside without an escort.
Historically, black Africans have been less prone to heart disease, making some believe that obesity has no downside. However, the incidence of type 2 diabetes—which is known to increase the risk of developing heart disease—has increased among black Africans in recent years. According to the IASO, 8 to 12 percent of the black South African population has type 2 diabetes, compared with just 4 percent of the country’s white population. And African doctors, Astrup has found, are making matters worse. Many patients, he says,”are being told by their doctor that they should relax and that [being overweight] is not too important to their health.” Radio and television also dish out incorrect medical advice, he adds.
For Astrup, it all seems woefully familiar. “If you go back in time to about 1950 in the U.S. and Denmark,” he says, “they had more or less the same picture … nobody cared, nobody recognized that it was an issue.” That’s not a good place to be, especially for a region with a patchwork, often overwhelmed, health-care system. Without effective government intervention and a change in cultural attitudes, sub-Saharan Africa’s obesity epidemic is likely to worsen in the coming years, bringing yet more medical horror to its beleaguered population.
That’s a good problem to have, I suppose.
It’s self correcting.................
end foreign aid
Wonder how well the rise in obesity and the increase in soft drink sales in Africa would track?
Obesity problem. Its out fault, send more money. BTW, where is the handle of the big money toilet that is Africa.
The author has never examined the history of Africa.
If you look at 19th century photography, you see that this is a continuation of what has always been.
I love antique geography books, and own several.
Face it, black women in America have a terrible obesity problem. And Hispanics as well. And many Anglo women are no slouches at obesity.
Come to think of it, the entire planet seems obese.
Note to planet: try self control and quit drinking sodas and fast food. QUICK - BEFORE THE GOVERNMENT MANDATES IT!!!!!!!!!!
Gary Taubes, in “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” has an incredibly detailed analysis of the “obesity” problem and traces 90% of it to carbs, specifically refined sugars and flour. It’s interesting that the Pima Indians used to be, well, like most other Indians: lean, mean, hunters . . . until the white supply routes started establishing stations on their land, and they began to use white flour and refined sugar. I’d bet anything that this is what’s happening in Africa to some extent.
BMI = ( Weight in Pounds / ( Height in inches )^2 ) x 703
If you notice, there are no cubic (^3) factors in this formula.
The volume of an object is a cubic function.
The net effect of this error is that short obese people will have a BMI less than 25, while tall skinny people might have a BMI over 25, when they are anything but obese.
For whatever reason, people are taller these days. Many of the people classified as obese aren't.
The reality is that a six foot tall person should weigh 8 times what a three foot tall person weighs, because the volume of a six foot tall person should be eight times that of a three foot tall person.
If the average three foot tall person weighs 25 pounds, the average 6 foot tall person should weigh 25 * 2^3 = 200.
“Kids, be sure to clean your plates because there are overweight people in Africa.”
LOL! First belly-laugh of the day. When I was a kid, I absolutely HATED dumplings; and Mom would make them once a week.
I once asked, “Can’t I just send these to starving kids?”
My old man just about busted a gut while receiving dagger-looks from Mom, LOL!
That was the WRONG response to make when the nuns at elementary school sent you back to the cafeteria table because you still had food on your tray.
I've heard that you can tell how old someone is based on them filling in the blank "Clean your plates because of starving kids in __________". In my parents' generation it was Europe because they were born during WW II and their young memories were the starving kids in wreckage of the war. A little later it was starving kids in India and China. By the time I was a kid in the 1970s it was shifting to Africa with a few mentions of Asia. Later it was all Africa, all the time.
So what’s the correct doctor-approved formula?
That's a government formula.
The government doesn't have to be correct.
As a matter of fact, an incorrect formula allows them to declare an obesity crisis (that doesn't actually exist), which gives them the power to tax foods they claim are making us fat.
Do you detect the pattern?
The operative phrase being "SEMI-reasonable."
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