obesity causes and risk and effective way to reduce it
The effects of fast food on your body and health
Regularly eating lots of fast food can have both short and long-term effects on your physical health, increase your risk of certain diseases and affect your mental wellbeing. Here we’ll take a look at some of the specific consequences fast food can have on your body. But first, what is fast food?
Fast food defined
Fast food refers to mass-produced, highly processed food that is prepared very quickly. This may include deep frying, grilling or microwaving pre-prepared ingredients, which are often precooked or frozen.
Common fast foods include burgers, fries, doughnuts, hot dogs, fried chicken, fish and chips, pizza, kebabs and submarine sandwiches (subs).
These are usually high in saturated fat, sugar, highly processed carbohydrates and calories. They are usually low in nutrients, vitamins
Key facts
- In 2022, 1 in 8 people worldwide were obese.
- Adult obesity has more than doubled globally since 1990, and adolescent obesity has quadrupled.
- In 2022, 2.5 billion adults (18 years and older) were overweight. Of this total, 890 million were obese.
- In 2022, 43% of adults aged 18 and over were overweight and 16% were obese.
- In 2022, 37 million children under 5 were overweight.
- More than 390 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 were overweight in 2022, and of these, 160 million were obese.
Overview
Overweight is a condition characterized by excessive deposition of fatty tissue.
Obesity is a complex chronic disease defined by excessive deposition of fat tissue that can be detrimental to health. Obesity can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, it can affect bone health and reproductive health, and it increases the risk of certain cancers. Obesity affects quality of life, such as sleep and mobility.
Diagnosis of overweight and obesity is made by measuring the weight and height of individuals and calculating the body mass index (BMI): weight (kg)/height² (m²). BMI is a surrogate marker of adiposity. Additional measures, such as waist circumference, can help diagnose obesity.
In infants, children, and adolescents, BMI categories defining obesity vary by age and sex.
Adults
For adults, WHO defines overweight and obesity as:
- overweight is defined as BMI equal to or greater than 25; and
- Obesity is defined as a BMI of 30 or more.
For children, the definition of overweight and obesity takes into account age.
Children under 5 years old
For children under 5 years old:
- overweight is weight for height greater than 2 standard deviations above the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards; and
- Obesity is weight for height greater than 3 standard deviations above the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards.
Charts and graphs: WHO growth standards for children under 5 years
Children aged 5 to 19
For children aged 5 to 19 years, overweight and obesity are defined as:
- overweight is a BMI for age greater than 1 standard deviation above the median of the WHO growth standard; and
- Obesity is a BMI for age greater than 2 standard deviations above the median of the WHO growth standard.
Charts and graphs: WHO growth for children aged 5–19 years
Overweight and obesity in figures
In 2022, 2.5 billion adults aged 18 years and older were overweight and of these, more than 890 million were obese, representing 43% of overweight adults aged 18 years and older (43% of men and 44% of women); this proportion has increased from 25% in 1990. The prevalence of overweight varies across regions, ranging from 31% in the WHO South-East Asia Region and the African Region to 67% in the Region of the Americas.
About 16% of adults aged 18 and over worldwide were obese in 2022. The global prevalence of obesity more than doubled between 1990 and 2022.
In 2022, an estimated 37 million children under 5 were overweight. Once considered a problem in high-income countries, overweight is increasing in low- and middle-income countries. In Africa, the number of overweight children under 5 has increased by nearly 23% since 2000. In 2022, nearly half of all overweight or obese children under 5 lived in Asia.
More than 390 million children and adolescents aged 5–19 years were overweight in 2022. The prevalence of overweight (including obesity) among children and adolescents aged 5–19 years has increased significantly, from 8% in 1990 to 20% in 2022. The increase is similar among boys and girls: in 2022, 19% of girls and 21% of boys were overweight.
While only 2% of children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 were obese in 1990 (31 million young people), in 2022, 8% of them were obese (160 million young people).
Causes of overweight and obesity
Overweight and obesity result from an imbalance between energy intake (diet) and energy expenditure (physical activity).
In most cases, obesity is a multifactorial disease due to obesogenic environments, psychosocial factors and genetic variants. In a subgroup of patients, major etiological factors can be distinguished (medications, diseases, immobilization, iatrogenic conditions, monogenic disease/genetic syndrome).
The obesogenic environment that increases the likelihood of obesity in individuals, populations and across contexts results from structural factors that limit the possibilities of sustainably obtaining healthy foods at affordable prices locally, the lack of easy and safe physical mobility in the daily lives of all, and the absence of an adequate legal and regulatory framework.
Furthermore, the lack of effective measures in the health system to detect excessive weight gain and adipose tissue deposition at an early stage makes the progression to obesity more likely.
Common health consequences
The health risks of being overweight and obese are increasingly well-documented and better known.
It is estimated that in 2019, a BMI above the optimal value caused 5 million deaths from noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, neurological disorders, chronic respiratory diseases and digestive disorders (1) .
Overweight in children and adolescents directly affects their health and is associated with a higher risk and earlier onset of various NCDs such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Childhood and adolescent obesity has a range of adverse psychosocial consequences, including impacts on educational outcomes and quality of life, compounded by stigma, discrimination and bullying. Obese children are more likely to remain obese as adults and are at increased risk of developing NCDs in adulthood.
The economic consequences of the obesity epidemic are also significant. If left unaddressed, the global cost of overweight and obesity is expected to reach US$3 trillion per year by 2030 and more than US$18 trillion by 2060 (2) .
Finally, rising obesity rates in low- and middle-income countries, including among lower socioeconomic groups, are rapidly globalizing a problem that was once confined to high-income countries.
The double burden of malnutrition
Many low- and middle-income countries face what is known as the double burden of malnutrition.
As these countries continue to grapple with infectious diseases and undernutrition, they are experiencing a rapid increase in noncommunicable disease risk factors such as obesity and overweight.
It is not uncommon to observe malnutrition and obesity simultaneously in the same country, the same community, or even the same family.
In low- and middle-income countries, children are at greater risk of not receiving adequate nutrition, whether during the prenatal, infant or young child stages. In addition, these children are exposed to foods high in fat, sugar and salt, high in calories but low in micronutrients, which are generally less expensive but also of lower nutritional quality. Combined with insufficient physical activity, these dietary habits are causing a marked increase in childhood obesity while undernutrition problems remain unresolved.
Prevention and management
Overweight and obesity, and their associated noncommunicable diseases, are largely preventable and manageable.
At the individual level, it is possible to reduce the risk by taking preventive measures at each stage of the life cycle, starting with the preconception period and continuing during the first years of life. These measures include:
- to ensure that weight gain is normal during pregnancy;
- to breastfeed exclusively for the first 6 months after birth and to continue breastfeeding until 24 months of age or beyond;
- to encourage good behaviors in children in terms of diet, physical activity, sedentary lifestyle and sleep, regardless of their current weight;
- to limit screen time;
- to limit consumption of sugary drinks and high-calorie foods and promote other healthy eating behaviors;
- to have a healthy lifestyle (healthy diet, physical activity, duration and quality of sleep, no tobacco or alcohol, emotional self-regulation);
- to limit energy intake from total fats and sugars and to consume more fruits and vegetables, as well as legumes, whole grains and nuts; and
- to have regular physical activity.
Health care providers must:
- measuring the weight and height of people visiting health facilities;
- provide advice on how to eat and live healthily;
- where a diagnosis of obesity is made, provide integrated obesity prevention and management services, combining healthy eating, physical activity and medical and surgical interventions; and
- monitor other NCD risk factors (glycemia, lipids and blood pressure) and screen for comorbidities and disabilities, including mental disorders.
People’s eating habits and physical activity levels are largely determined by environmental and societal conditions that severely limit personal choices. Obesity is a societal rather than an individual responsibility, and solutions lie in creating supportive environments and communities that make healthy eating and regular physical activity the easiest and most affordable behaviors to adopt in daily life.
To curb the rise in obesity, multi-sectoral measures are needed that take into account, for example in food manufacturing, marketing and pricing, broader determinants of health (such as urban planning and the fight against poverty).
These policies and measures include:
- structural, fiscal and regulatory measures aimed at creating healthy food environments that make good food choices possible, accessible and attractive; and
- health sector interventions designed to identify risks, prevent, treat and manage disease. These measures should be integrated into broader responses to noncommunicable diseases and strengthen health systems using a primary health care approach.
The food industry can play an important role in promoting healthy eating:
- by reducing the fat, sugar and salt content of processed foods;
- ensuring that all consumers are offered healthy and nutritious products at an affordable price;
- by limiting the marketing of foods high in fat, sugar and salt, particularly those aimed at children and adolescents; and
- ensuring that healthy foods are offered and regular physical activity is encouraged in the workplace.
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