Spring. Sun. The Castles Have Arrived. And our beautiful women, having the day off on March 8, traditionally began to improve their figures for the warm season. It goes against the philosophy of body positivity. And sometimes it goes against common sense. After all, we have people who are on real diets, not three days apart, and are already in great shape. Then they introduced new statistics. It turned out that for more than 30 years in Russia, the proportion of overweight women has remained almost unchanged. But men and children gain weight rapidly. It’s time.
Numbers first. The scientific journal Lancet has presented an updated ranking of the “world’s fattest countries.” The overall picture is this: In 2024, almost 878 million adults on the planet will be living with obesity; 504 million women and 374 million men. At the same time, the latter exhibits higher dynamics: over the past 30 years, the number of obese men has tripled, while the number of women has increased by only two. Several island states lead the obesity rankings. In first place is the island of Nauru, where 61% of fat people live: 69.6% of men and 52.4% of women. In addition to the islands, the twenty fattest countries traditionally include the USA, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Kuwait.
It is gratifying that Russia took only 88th place in this team competition: the proportion of overweight people in our country does not exceed a quarter of the population.
Although of course this is a lot. But the emerging trends are even more worrying. Our country ranks 106th for women and 70th for men in the ranking by gender. In general, the number of males of impressive size has increased 2.7 times since the mid-90s – from 8.9% to 24.3%. In this sense, our knights have completely caught up with the beautiful ladies and now have a chance to surpass them, because there have been almost no plump women left in our country for thirty years.
But there are other statistics as well. The head of Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova, said that in Russia the stronger sex has already surpassed the weaker sex, overweight is observed in 47.6% of our men and 35.6% of women. But of course it all depends on the criteria. Foreign calculations are based on a body mass index exceeding 30 points. Our authorities flag anyone with a BMI over 25.
But no matter how the reality is measured, the overall trend is clear and very sad: The world is getting fatter. And the saddest thing is that obesity is rapidly getting younger. There are more and more overweight children on the planet – an average of 20 to 40% in different countries. In Russia, according to various estimates, the proportion of children and adolescents with above-normal BMI ranges from 25 to 33%, and in particular, about 10% are obese.
And the kids’ dynamics are even scarier. Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Tatyana Golikova stated that the number of obese children in our country increases by 9 percent every year. According to the Ministry of Health, in twenty years the number of schoolchildren with this diagnosis has increased sixfold.
Who is to blame and what to do? They are either talking about the environment, or the stress level, or the deterioration of nutrition due to school, or the poor quality of modern food, or the lack of physical education and sports in children’s lives. And probably each of the factors plays its part, but apparently much more indirectly than is generally thought.
For example, physical education. It may not be enough, but besides this, schools constantly hold all kinds of fun contests, outdoor games and the way children run around during recess – it’s scary to walk the corridors! Yes, not all kids are only interested in their phones. Every educational institution has sports sections, and they are often overcrowded.
But unfortunately even in sports there are now enough chubby people. My youngest is engaged in ballroom dancing and constantly participates in competitions and tournaments. As always, I accompany him and observe different things. So, from what I understand, one in every tenth girl at these shows is pretty body positive. And while working in the education system, I constantly see overweight football players, volleyball players, tourists, wrestlers, swimmers.
Is the food bad? But he is different. Yes, there are social factors. For example, poor people are more likely to overindulge in simple carbohydrates. There are studies showing that poor people consume more sugar and less protein.
But it’s not just about saving money. Even the cheapest baked goods with soda will cost more than millet porridge and carrot salad. Inaccessibility of school meals is also not to blame. Set lunches in St. Petersburg schools cost 150 rubles, but there are no queues for them. But you will not be crowded at the buffet, where schoolchildren buy chocolate in incredible quantities. To put it mildly, I also see children from poor families eating crackers and chips all the time. The issue is less about money and more about the lack of food culture. So where and by whom is this culture created?
The results of another study were recently presented by Norwegian scientists. It turns out that excess weight is somewhat of a hereditary problem. Experts from the University of Tromsø found that in a family where one of the parents is obese, the risk of the child suffering from such a disease increases threefold. It is stated that this is not just about genes, the determining factor is copying the lifestyle of adults.
Wow, the disgusting Norwegians opened America to us. We had no idea! No one has ever seen such families in his life, where grandmothers and fathers have equally obese children. And we didn’t even dare to think about the fact that “it’s not just about genes.” No one has observed families of plump people, at least not, for example, in a supermarket. Let’s say a fat dad and a teenager with a height of 52 are rolling a cart filled to the brim with smoked sausages, salads with mayonnaise and soda, and of course each of us immediately understands that people are probably unlucky with their genes. It seems they may have been breathing the wrong air due to their metabolism or in an environmentally unfavorable environment.
I may be sarcastic, but something terrible is happening. And it’s time to do something. Start some kind of national program, organize weight loss marathons. But it’s not just for women who dream of a beach holiday – they’ll figure it out for themselves. It is necessary to carry out family actions. I have no hesitation in saying that we need new slogans. My mother, father and I are a long-established family. There shouldn’t be too many good people. Don’t accept yourself as anyone. Every fold is a step towards diabetes. And anyone who screams fat fascism should be condemned to a celery diet.
Okay, so many forced diets. However, health insurance fees may be increased for those with a BMI over 30.
At least it’s symbolic. So people finally realized that it’s not about hatred, it’s not about the snobbery of some legendary esthete who haunts people whose normal clothing size is 46, it’s about their own health, the well-being of their children. children. In short, it’s time to lose weight. And not just for summer, but for life. I’m going to go chew some spinach.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the position of the editors.