Obesity: A Reference Handbook

摘要

Obesity really is a "contemporary world issue", and so fits in well with the title of this reference series. "Contemporary", in the sense that it is a fairly recent phenomenon. My British generation was brought up in an era of food rationing, but even among older people or people from other countries, being fat used to be a noticeable enough exception to get you a nickname. "World", in the sense that, like so many contemporary issues it seems to have started in America and then gradually spread to other developed countries. An "issue" it most definitely is. People with a body/ mass index (BMI) of 30 or upwards have a 10 to 50 per cent increased rate of death from all causes compared to people with a BMI of around 20. Being too fat is a major contributor to the risk of getting a wide range of disorders, including heart diseases, type 2 diabetes, respiratory disorders, and various cancers. Obesity therefore definitely belongs in Contemporary World Issues, along with Climate Change, Energy Use Worldwide, Nuclear Weapons and Nonproliferation, Renewable and Alternative Energy Solutions, and US National Security, which are some of the other titles in the series.