From the dawn of
our history, food shortage and malnutrition have been a scourge. Many a
civilizations have been felled because of hunger and famine. Technical
and administrative advances have led to easier availability of food.
Unfortunately this did not happen simultaneously across the world. Many parts
of the world still continue to be under the grip of hunger. The result of these
advances was a definite increase in life expectancy and a general improvement
in public health. These advances, even though they have not found
equitable distribution across the world, have had presence felt everywhere.
This gradual increase in easy accessibility to food coupled with a lack of physical activity may have led to
what is a new public health crisis of the last few decades: obesity. A nation
like ours today faces the double challenge of malnutrition and obesity. While
we are still unable to feed all our children, obesity has already raised its
ugly head. Obesity and malnutrition may be at two ends of a spectrum, but they
are by no means mutually exclusive.
Ref-History of Obesity, or How What Was
Good Became Ugly and Then Bad
·
Renal Section, Department of Medicine, Baylor
College of Medicine, Houston, TX.
