You grow fat because of ……

This morning, a nice lady called our hotline to understand more about our Good Image Tea which she saw on one of the online portals. 

She had wanted to reduce further her weight and she candidly lamented that “life is unfair” as her siblings are not obese except her and she sighed with laughter that “this world is cruel too, people around you including family members and neighbors can laughed at you when you are obese”.  Her weight gain she believed was due to genetics, underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) and slow metabolism. 

Within the survey of Synovate which showed Singaporeans as the least weight-obsessed community, 11% of the 19,000 respondents from 13 countries said that genetics is the main cause of their obesity. Of this figure, the highest number who blame on genetics were the Brazilians (20%) are followed by people from the UAE (19%) and Saudis (18%).

fat-brazilians.jpg

Other statistics were:-

* 40% of the respondents attribute food as the culprit
* 20% chose ‘unhealthy food choices’
* 20% chose ‘unhealthy food habits like eating at irregular hours’.
* 18% say it is ‘lack of exercise’
* 13% blame the individual (‘no self-discipline’) 

Currently, obesity has reached epidemic proportions in developed nations as well as many developing countries. ‘No self-discipline’ is what respondents in the UK (21%) & USA (20%) believed is the leading factor in obesity. USA and UK tops the number of overweight and obese populations.

Interestingly, unlike other matters in which citizens will like to blame their government for, however when come to obesity, very few people blame it on their government. 

Other research showed the Americans blame obesity on the influence from family members and friends.