Statistics indicate a significant increase in the number of people in Russia suffering from obesity. While obesity threatens the health of many people in various countries around the world. Recently a study conducted by Rospotrebnadzor, showed that the number of cases of obesity in the country increased more than twofold between 2011 and 2015: for the every 100 thousand people have 284,4 case of obesity compared to 123,65 cases in 2011.
In the study of the growth of the incidence of obesity is due to factors such as unbalanced diet, excessive consumption of sugar and bread and inadequate consumption of vegetables and dairy products. Although the Ministry of health of Russia announced an increase in the number of Russians who suffer from obesity, to 1.3 million in 2015, and then to 1.4 million people in 2016, an increase in the number of obesity cases can be explained by the improvement of proper diagnosis.
Specialist in nutrition Guzel Ovchinnikov admits that Russia is facing an increasing number of citizens suffering from obesity, however, believes that the current situation in Russia is still better than in some Western countries. In her opinion, the problem is determined by two main factors — the increase in calorie consumption on the background of reducing level of activity. The expert said the newspaper “al-Arabi al Jadid”: “the reason for employment studies and the work of the people stopped doing the cooking and prefer to buy any ready meals or takeaway food. In turn, in order to attract customers and generate big profits the fast food restaurants strive to improve the taste of their products by adding fat and sugar, whilst these supplements contain large amounts of calories.”
Relative changes in the lifestyle of people who became the reason of increase in the number of obese people, Guzel Ovchinnikov notes that 20 or 30 years ago in the country there were not so many vehicles, in particular cars. There were also a number of professions, suggesting that people will sit in front of the computer, as there was no work at home. When the energy is not consumed, the body stores the calories as fat cells.
An expert in nutrition advises people who are overweight, don’t wait until the problem goes into the stage of obesity, and to pay attention to symptoms such as weight gain, shortness of breath, but also refer to specialists. According to her, even in the case of obesity, the hope is to get rid of excess weight without surgical intervention, only need to refrain from the consumption of high calorie food and develop body muscles.
It should be noted that the world health organization defines obesity as excess body weight (BMI) is 30 kg and more. Ovchinnikov specifies that when measuring this indicator, before to diagnose obesity, it is necessary to consider the ratio between fat and muscle mass. As excessive consumption of sugar leads to an increase in the number of cases of obesity in Russia from time to time there are calls to introduce a “sugar tax” on soft drinks, as is happening in some European countries and some US States.
© AFP 2016, Natalia KolesnikovaВыставка sand sculptures under the open sky Kolomenskoye Park
Nevertheless, large specialist, researcher, Institute of economy of agriculture Yevgeny Ivanov said that despite the fact that sugar is one of the factors that increase caloric intake, it is not the only culprit of the situation. So, many factories producing food and beverages, use glucose and fructose in maize and wheat, whose composition similar to the composition of sugar.
According to Ivanov, the lobby grain mills are behind the calls for the introduction of a tax on products containing sugar. “If we introduce such a tax, it should apply to all types of food and drinks containing sugar, such as juices, dairy products, and any high-calorie foods, not just fizzy drinks,” — said the expert.
About the effects of sugar on health Ivanov said the following: “In the world there is no study that has confirmed that moderate consumption of sugar adiabatically is harmful to their health.” Thus, the proportion of sugar should not exceed 10-15% of daily calorie intake.
Statistical data about those who suffer from obesity in Russia do not include people who are overweight, the number of which in the country is around 37 million, that is, approximately 25% of the total population of the country.
© flickr.com, ebruliФастфуд
According to published data, in 2014, 54% of men aged over 20 years living in Russia, were overweight, while among women the figure was 59%. According to the world health organization, in 2014, more than 600 million people worldwide were obese.
With the growing interest of citizens, primarily women, to a healthy lifestyle and getting rid of excess weight, society began to pay much attention to the different aspects of the problem. In particular, obesity has become one of the burning topics for television programs in Russia. In this context, the Russian entertainment TV channel STS a few months ago launched a reality show in which participants compete against each other, trying to get rid of excess weight. The winner of the show was the man who managed to reduce his weight from 154 to 91 kilograms in just four months.
