1. Obesity
Obesity is a rising epidemic in the modern world. The global statistics for
obesity shows that its rise each year. According to Prof Dr Mohd Ismail Noor, president
of the Malaysian Association for the Study of Obesity (MASO), obesity, dubbed as “the
disease of the new millennium”, constitutes the most important public health problem we
face today. On the 10th April 2010, Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai launched
the Malaysian Council for Obesity Prevention (MCOP) as 2 out of every 5 Malaysian
adults is either overweight or obese. Obesity occurs when a person’s weight is far
above his ideal body weight. It has become a major problem in many countries.
Malaysia has one of the highest obesity rates in Asia and is rapidly catching up
with those countries with some of the highest obesity figures in the world in example
USA, Mexico, Great Britain and Australia. The World Health Organization (WHO) has
highlighted that obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally, with at least 2.6
million people dying each as a result of being overweight or obese. The latest figures
WHO has revealed some 1.6 billion adults are overweight and 400 million obese. In
Malaysia, about 43% adults are overweight, some 20% adolescents and 26% of
primary school children are either overweight or obese. Obesity is a complex
phenomenon, but the main causes can be grouped into three headings; poor food
choice, lack of exercise, and lack of awareness.
Poor food choice is one of the main causes. People today eat more and more
junk food and fast food. This food is high in fats and cholesterol, and contains too much
carbohydrate. Obesity is usually caused by unhealthy eating. It is very common for us to
eat junk food these days. We are so busy that we tend to have all our meal in our local
fast food shops. As a matter of fact, a lot of people love eating burgers. However, they
are usually of too much fact and it will not be good to your health if you eat burgers too
much. The main problem of eating burgers is that you will not feel full with one
burger. Yet a burger can already be enough for your meal. This is really a mismatch
and there will certainly be a problem if you eat two burgers in one meal. It is important
to look after our meals all of the time. There had been so much junk food in the
market. It is not healthy to take junk food all the time. We can just cook at home and
prepare a delicious and healthy meal for everybody.

2. The second main cause is lack of exercise. Most of the people have
changed their lifestyle completely from one in which there was more walking, physical
and outdoor activity, into a sedentary lifestyle with little or no exercise. Most expatriates
and emirates take cars to work and do office jobs. Maids and foreign laborers take care
of housework and manual labor. It makes our life easier but at the same time it is also
important for us to do exercises. This will help us to burn more calories so that it will not
be stored as fat in our body.
You may wonder what the main reason of obesity is. As a matter of fact,
disorder in eating habits is the main cause of the problem. If you do not control the
amount and kind of food you eat, you may develop obesity. To this end you may know
that your lifestyle will certainly have effect on your body weight. Your genetic makeup
may also play an important role. The probability for you to develop obesity will certainly
be higher if your family members have the history of obesity. As a result, you should be
very careful if you family has such history.
Another contributing factor is lack of awareness about good eating
habits. Mothers give their children too much choice and too little guidance in what to
eat, advertising confuses many people with claim for particular types of commercial
processed foods. And conflicting information about diets and healthy eating from the
food industry and medical experts leaves many people puzzled.
The effects on individuals and society are huge. First of all, a vicious circle is
created in which children are overfed and grow up to become overeating
adults. Another effect is that people who become overweight find it harder to exercise,
which in turn can lead to increased eating. Many obese people suffer from low self-
esteem, especially as children, which again in turn can result in comfort eating. The
medical consequences are huge. Obesity can lead to heart problems, diabetes and
other serious health problem, which can cost millions to treat, and which reduce can
economic productivity and life expectancy for the country and its citizens. It could even
be argues that obesity saps energy from the individual and the country, leading to
laziness in other aspects of life. Although in the past prosperity was associated with
being fat, today people are beginning to realize the cost of such a goal.

3. In conclusion, it seems that we will have to reassess our entire lifestyle if we are
to avoid the problems associated with obesity. Despite restrictive diets and tempting
advertisements, most of us instinctively understand good common-sense
eating. However, we have to combine this with more activity and with new insights into
the importance of good health. There are a lot of ways to combat the problem of
obesity. Of course you will need to change your lifestyle if you have the problem of
obesity. You will need to start eat healthy. You should eat less junk food. Of course at
the same time you should not skip any meal. If we do not take action soon, we may find
ourselves paying a heavy price. You are what you eat. You eat fatty foods, you’ll get
fat, but if you eat healthier cuisine, your body will become healthier as well.