Is Obesity as a Social Phenomenon of late Twentieth Century?

Why it is Necessary Now to Regard Obesity as a Late Twentieth Century Social Phenomenon

There is question that arise in our mind "Is Obesity as a Social Phenomenon of late Twentieth Century?". To regard obesity only as a result of gross malfunctioning of all the necessary constituents of an ideal hygienic condition means to engage oneself in finding a curative answer with precautions, dietary prescriptions and all sorts of clinical methodologies what so far our doctors and medical professionals are doing for ages. This clinical mindset in regard to any kind of hygienic disorder actually made people attach to an environment where disease and disorders are chased by medical curative practices in regular circles. No wonder that a person who was suffering from hyper-tension in his youth would be fallen as a victim of obesity in his later years and finally end up in being a diabetic in his old days. And no wonder that his life would be a lingered follow-up with the curative procedures of a medical practitioner for one disorder to another until he becomes old enough to die. As of now, no clinical practice, however state-of-the art it be, could not find any standard procedure for a convincing cure for obesity. To overcome a disorder if our approach is basically to make adjustment of the contributing elements of the ailing body, we are actually running in circles without progressing toward the absolute termination of the disorder.

From ancient Rome to as late as mid-twentieth century, Obesity in people had never been considered to be a hygienic disorder as it has become now. For many centuries, in various civilizations it had been considered as a sign of abundance of health, wealth and consequent social status. Obesity was always there in all ages of human history but there had never been so huge a population who are gripped by it. This factor of being a mass disorder and consequently a hygienic issue is the most important vantage point where from we can better understand its becoming and relevant answers for its prevention.

Human being in scientific understanding is regarded as a composite of its body and mind, both involving in each other. With the advent of industrial society and its subsequent development into a consumerist society resulted in multiple social and lifestyle trends and these changes in social behavior and lifestyle contributed the entire prerequisite for a completely new set of disease and disorders, both of mind and body. The medical reasoning of obesity unveils this fact far too well. Primarily excessive food energy intake and lack of physical exercise is sited as the main cause of obesity and in the social level which contributes to this incoherence are plentitude of palatable diet and more dependence on car and other Appliances which replace physical movement. Secondarily, insufficient sleep, mental stress, nervous syndromes and environmental pollution are cited as major contributory factors behind obesity. From what the above-mentioned causes suggests, it does not need much insight to see the correlation between our lifestyle and its multiple roots of penetration in the malfunctioning of our physical and psychic system.

So, viewing obesity as a social phenomenon and consideration of our lifestyle as the foundation behind its eruption as a health disorder is the viable alternative to all medical discourses of curative procedures.