Eat less and healthy to survive during pandemic like coronavirus

Obesity increased the risk of death from coronavirus almost 40 %

Eat less and healthy food to avoid diabetes, heart disease and to survive better during a pandemic like  COVID-19. Health experts around the world are warning against obesity due to junk food and sugary drinks. according to latest British research, obesity increased the risk of death from coronavirus almost 40%. 

British government has announced on Monday July 27 to tackle the country's obesity problem, made more urgent by the coronavirus crisis. Under the plan, the restaurants will have to display calories on menus.The move to include calories on menus would be placed on restaurants, cafes and takeaways with more than 250 employees.

Another potential measure announced on Monday was a proposal to ban the placing of sweets and chocolate bars at supermarket checkouts.The British premier has previously criticised government attempts to spur weight control but said the latest initiative would not be enforced "in an excessively bossy or nannying way".

Other measures outlined include bans on "buy one get one free" deals on unhealthy items, junk food television adverts being aired before 9 pm and a "consultation" on placing calorie labels on alcohol.

It is not the first time a British government has attempted to do something about the country's bulging waistlines, but this latest attempt has been prompted by the pandemic.

According to the UK's official data,Two-thirds of UK adults(66%) are above a healthy weight, with 36 percent overweight and 28 percent obese. Meanwhile,  analyses show that nearly eight percent of critically-ill patients in intensive care units with the virus were categorised as morbidly obese, compared with less than three percent of the general population.

The number of obese children and adolescents (aged five to 19 years) worldwide has risen tenfold in the past four decades. If current trends continue, more children and adolescents will be obese than moderately or severely underweight by 2022, according to a study led by Imperial College London and WHO in 2017.

The study was published in The Lancet ahead of World Obesity Day (11 October). It analysed weight and height measurements from nearly 130 million people aged over five years (31.5 million people aged five to 19, and 97.4 million aged 20 and older), making it the largest ever number of participants involved in an epidemiological study. More than 1000 contributors participated in the study, which looked at body mass index (BMI) and how obesity has changed worldwide from 1975 to 2016.

Obesity rates in the world's children and adolescents increased from less than 1% (equivalent to five million girls and six million boys) in 1975 to nearly 6% in girls (50 million) and nearly 8% in boys (74 million) in 2016. Combined, the number of obese five to 19 year old rose more than tenfold globally, from 11 million in 1975 to 124 million in 2016. An additional 213 million were overweight in 2016 but fell below the threshold for obesity.

Lead author Professor Majid Ezzati, of Imperial's School of Public Health, says: "Over the past four decades, obesity rates in children and adolescents have soared globally, and continue to do so in low- and middle-income countries. More recently, they have plateaued in higher income countries, although obesity levels remain unacceptably high."

Professor Ezzati adds: "These worrying trends reflect the impact of food marketing and policies across the globe, with healthy nutritious foods too expensive for poor families and communities. The trend predicts a generation of children and adolescents growing up obese and at greater risk of diseases, like diabetes. We need ways to make healthy, nutritious food more available at home and school, especially in poor families and communities, and regulations and taxes to protect children from unhealthy foods."

The rise in childhood and adolescent obesity rates in low and middle income countries, especially in Asia, has recently accelerated. On the other hand, the rise in childhood and adolescent obesity in high income countries has slowed and plateaued.

In 2016, the obesity rate was highest in Polynesia and Micronesia in boys and girls, at 25.4% in girls and 22.4% in boys, followed by the high-income English-speaking region, which includes the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

The areas of the world with the largest increase in the number of obese children and adolescents were East Asia, the high-income English-speaking region, and the Middle East and North Africa.

Nauru was the country with the highest prevalence of obesity for girls (33.4%), and Cook Islands had the highest for boys (33.3%).

In Europe, girls in Malta and boys in Greece had the highest obesity rates, comprising 11.3% and 16.7% of the population respectively. Girls and boys in Moldova had the lowest obesity rates, comprising 3.2% and 5% of the population respectively.

Girls in the UK had the 73rd highest obesity rate in the world (6th in Europe); boys had the 84th highest obesity in the world (18th in Europe).

Girls in the USA had the 15th highest obesity rate in the world; boys had the 12th highest obesity in the world.

Among high-income countries, the United States of America had the highest obesity rates for girls and boys.

                                                             Rukhsana Manzoor