Obesity Is now the second most preventable cause of death.

It is next to smoking and enormous problem in the united states. The number of overweight people has increased dramatically in the last few decades. According to a report in the journal of the American medical association, 58 million people in our country weigh over twenty percent of their bodies ideal weight. Obesity is so wides spread and its prevalence is rising so rapidly that many refer to it as as epidemic. According to the world health organization this epidemic of obesity has spread worl wide, affecting 300 million adults. The eating habits of society have become harmful which has resulted in producing over indulgent adults. The main reason why people accumulate excess body fat is that they take in more food energy than the expend. Facots such as genetics, environmental, cultural, behavioral, socio economic , psychological and metabolic all paly a part in causing obesity. Genetics plays a true causative role in obesity. For example in prades-willi syndrome- a genetic disorder characterized by excessive appetite , massive obesity, short stature and often mental retardatioin. In most cases of obesity , however, do stem from gentic mutation, yet genetic influences do seem to be involved. In a study conducted by brownell and Christopher about eaing disorderand obesity it was found that adopted children tend to be similar in weight to their biologuical parent, not to their adoptive parents. Identical twins are twice as likely to weight the same as fraternal twins even when reared apart. These findings suggest as important role for genetics in determining a persons suspectibility to obesity. In other words even if genes do not cause obesity, genetic factor interact with food intake and activity patterns that lead to it and the metabolic pathways that maintain it. Clearly some thing genetic makes a person more or less likely to gain weight when overeating. Some people gain more weight than others on comparable energy intake. Givena extra thousand calories a day for 100 days, somepairs of identical twins gain less than 10 pounds while others gain upto 30 pounds. Researchers have identified an obesity gene called ob,which is expressed primarily in the adipose tissue and codes for the protein leptin. Research suggests that leptn from adipose tissue signals sufficient energy sourse and promotes a negative energy abalance by suppressing appetite. Leptin interacts with another protein that also acts a hormone primarily in the hypothalamus. This protein ghrelin is secreted primarily by the stomach cells and promotes a positive energy balance by stimulating appetite and promoting efficient energy storage. With obesity reates rising over the past 3 decades and the gene pool remaining relatively unchaged , environment must also play a role in obesity. The environment includes all of the circumstances that we encounter daily that push us towards fatness. We live in an environment that expose us to an abundance of high k calorie , high fat foods that are readily available, relatively inexpensive, heavily advertised and reasonable tasty. Food is available everywhere , all the time. Our highways are lined with fast food restaurants and convinence stores and service stations offer fat food as well. Fst food is available in our schools, malls and airports. Most alarming are the extraordinarily lasrge serving sizes and ready to go meals that offer supersize combinations. People buy the large sizes and combinations perceiving them to be good values, but

when they eat more than truly need- its a bad deal. Large package or portion sizes can increase consumption , even when the food is not particulariy appealing. The trend towards large portion sizes parallels the increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity in the untied states, beginning in the 1970s increasing sharpily in 1980s and continuing today. Restaurant food , especially fat food is a major player in the development of obesty. Fast food is often heigh in fat. Fats 9kcalories per gram quickly add up, amplifying peoples energy intakes and enlarging their body fat stores. Reducing portin sizes is helpful but the real savings come from lowering the energy density. Aster all large portions of food with low energy density such as lean meats, fruits and vegetables, can help with weight loss. Restaurants can help their customers eat healthfully by reducing portion sizes and offering more fruits , vegetable and whole grains. Our environment fosters physical inactivity as well. Escalators carry us upstairs,. Automobiles take us across town, buttons roll down windowns and remote controls change television channels from a distance. Modern technology has replaced physicial activity at home, at work and in transportation. Inactivity contributes to weight gain and poor health. Watching television, playing vedio gaems and using computer contribute to most physical inactivity. The more time people spend in this sendetary activities , the more likely they are to be over weight. People may be obese, there fore not because they eat too muchg but because they move too little- both in purposefulexercise and in the routines of the daily life. One study reports that the difference in the time obese and lean people spent lying , sitting, standing and moving accounts for about 350kcalories a day. Physicial activy is a necessary coimponent of nutritional helath.