Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Europe Focuses on Diet Pills

The European Union agenda has recently been declared a state of emergency. It is also forecasted that European countries will be “on diet” within ten years. This is an alarming situation and the EU countries have to quickly manage the high rate of obesity and overweight. One would think that the problems that American face with weight loss and diets have also gone over the ocean.
You will notice that Europeans have a lot of bad habits copied from the Americans including food habits such as fad diets and related weight-loss problems. The International Obesity Task Force has observed that between 1993 and 2003 there has been a 10 to 40 percent increase in the prevalence of obesity. This is quite alarming as it means that there are 30% of overweight people living in the European Union, and more than one in ten is obese.
It is no surprise then that the fight to end obesity recently began in earnest. What bothers the European officials more is childhood obesity because there is the likelihood of overweight children suffering a heart attack or stroke before their 65th birthday, and the chances of this happening are three to five times more. Granted that the urgency of the problem isn’t equal to that of the Americans, still the forecast are not pleasant.
The Challenge Posed by Obesity
In talking about obesity and being overweight, what is most often quoted is unhealthy eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle. The problems associated with obesity such as diabetes, stroke and heart disease have given European officials cause for concern. The statistics continue to increase with about 70,000 new cases each year. Already, what causes the most death in the European Union can be traced to heart diseases.
The urgency of this problem has caused the EU to take up a “fight-plan” against obesity that will run through the next ten years. The experts involved have highlighted four major ways that should be used to fight this problem which are governments, NGOs, food industry and consumers themselves. In the same way, there are also two other mediums that can be used in this fight which are the television and computer industry.
These media can be used to educate the nation in choosing a balanced diet as well as promote regular exercise.  No direct connection between what you eat (fast foods, biscuits, high carbohydrate foods and fatty products) and your weight has not been found. But the argument is that when you stop eating healthy, this goes a long way to make you overweight. In the European Union, obesity is now considered to be “public enemy number one”.
Portugal Case in Focus
Anorectic teenagers and obese middle-aged people can be found almost everywhere in Portugal, with about two-fifths of people between 18 to 65 being overweight. Nothing less than 15% of them are already obese, with over 8% or 18 or 19 year olds being extremely thin. These are facts that were published I September 2004 after a study carried by Agency France-Presse.
What Does These Two Statistics Point Out?
It can be seen from the facts that people who are between 18 to 65 years are at high risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes, while a lot of teens are prone to problems caused by not eating healthy. The cause of this may be because of their repulsion to obesity and their obsession to looking good.
Lately it has been observed that the Portuguese have adopted a new eating habit, which includes more sweets and fatty foods in their meals. This has greatly increased their obesity range. It has also been observed that many of them skip breakfast before going to work and instead have an early coffee break, which includes lot of sweet cakes, rolls, and croissants. They have their lunch regularly at one o’clock which is meat (codfish, veal, pork, chicken, rabbit) and potatoes (they rarely eat raw vegetables). At five, they have another coffee break, after which they have their dinner at eight. This dinner is mostly meat. Even though they are known to eat soup often, this is usually done before a meal not after. One of the common soups that Portuguese prefer is caldo verde soup even though it is very high in cholesterol.
There are a large number of fast foods in Portugal, both in their small and large towns, especially hamburger joints like McDonalds. This obviously makes sit even more difficult for the Portuguese.

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