The occurrence of obesity has increased by five fold since the Second World War. Most importantly, being overweight and obese may cause several psychological problems like a feeling of inferiority, often caused by discrimination. Furthermore, many physical problems are related to obesity, like difficulties in breathing, personal hygiene, pain in the knees and back and skin problems. People suffering from obesity more frequently have high blood pressure , diseases related to hardening of the arteries with blood clots in the heart and the brain . Other related problems include non-insulin dependant diabetes, gallstone , some types of cancer, difficulties in mobility and increased risk of mortality.
Obesity can be hereditary, hence some people are at increased risk.
However, obesity only develops from over-eating, irregular meals and lack of daily physical activity . Many people think that when a disease is hereditary, it is inevitable that you will suffer from the condition but this is not true. If the people in Europe had grown up in China with plenty of non-fat foods and hard daily work in the rice fields, only a few of them would be overweight or fat. It is lifestyle which determine how the genes develop. Besides genes, food and physical activity, it is possible that other so far unknown elements may play a part.