Obesity & their reasons in different countries of the world

258POSTS

7 years ago

Being an expat for last 09 years in different countries in middle east , I have came across lot of people from different nationalities. Among them I found Egyptians are the people, most suffering from Obesity due to their unique eating habits. They used too much of milk related products i.e. cheese , butter, curd e.t.c and rice in their food. Further the habits of regular exercising and movement is very less in their lifestyle.
Other such people are Saudis , there i found even the younger generation is suffering from obesity due to common availability of lots of fast & Junk foods stuff , declining trend of cooking at home, excessive use of beverages, plus extremely cozy, comfortable & lazy livings environments in their house.

How you all other expats out there experience these things in your expat journeys? will be glad to read your experiences.

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Fred Indonesia Expert

30549POSTS

7 years ago

I'm fat because Indonesian food is great
I'm fat because my wife's cooking has to be the best in the world

The stroganoff I just ate won't have helped but I see it this way - I could die thin and bored.

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iamscotty Member

1POSTS

7 years ago

Seems to me to be a problem seen more and more around the world in general. England in particular now has two generations of people that are increasingly becoming obese.

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beppi Germany/Singapore Expert

15653POSTS

7 years ago

Interestingly, you mention a rice-based diet at cause of Egyptian obesity.
The same is seen as cause for lower obesity levels in Asia!

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GuestPoster15874 Guest

0POSTS

7 years ago

It's basically a lifestyle disorder. Not only the country of origin, but yes, the people with sedentary life and dietary habits (more fatty food- dairy products, meat, beef and lots of cheese), which can be particular to some countries. Western world has more problematic incidence of obesity and related problems, but the developing nations are also not excluded. Incidence is more with upper socioeconomic class where they even don't have to do activity for themselves (not even their household work), so definitely prosperity comes with a prize, but I think they are happy with it until one day they find themselves jailed in their couch immobile because of hanging pads of extra fat which doesn't allow them to bear their own weight (but that is rare you know). Anyways, if you are talking about the incidence of obesity in these particular countries, it is higher than the Asian world for sure.

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Ribosom VIP Member

944POSTS

7 years ago

beppi wrote:
Interestingly, you mention a rice-based diet at cause of Egyptian obesity.
The same is seen as cause for lower obesity levels in Asia!

I believe the key thing is moderation, and less the type of food someone is eating.

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Ribosom VIP Member

944POSTS

7 years ago

Manish Madnani wrote:
It's basically a lifestyle disorder. Not only the country of origin, but yes, the people with sedentary life and dietary habits (more fatty food- dairy products, meat, beef and lots of cheese), which can be particular to some countries.

Just wanted to comment on this common misconception. Fat, meat and dairy products are not the problem, quite the opposite. Fat does not get stored as fat, sugar does. The fad of "low fat" products is the biggest scam food industry has sold us - do not fall for it.

Keep away from sugar and carbohydrates though. This may sound easier than it sounds - just read the nutrition facts label on most products and you will realize most of them are loaded with sugar, with the good stuff (fat/proteins) removed.

Stick to this, eat moderately, and do a minimum physical activity which is a low 20 minutes of light excercise per day (and that includes walking) and you should be good.

All this comes from personal experience.

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Asif_Hassan Oman Advisor

258POSTS

7 years ago

Hahahaha, You nailed it.

Asif_Hassan Oman Advisor

258POSTS

7 years ago

Yeah I agree with you Sugar is one of the main reason of Obesity epidemic.

GuestPoster15874 Guest

0POSTS

7 years ago

#10

Ribosom wrote:
Manish Madnani wrote:
It's basically a lifestyle disorder. Not only the country of origin, but yes, the people with sedentary life and dietary habits (more fatty food- dairy products, meat, beef and lots of cheese), which can be particular to some countries.

Just wanted to comment on this common misconception. Fat, meat and dairy products are not the problem, quite the opposite. Fat does not get stored as fat, sugar does. The fad of "low fat" products is the biggest scam food industry has sold us - do not fall for it.

Keep away from sugar and carbohydrates though. This may sound easier than it sounds - just read the nutrition facts label on most products and you will realize most of them are loaded with sugar, with the good stuff (fat/proteins) removed.

Stick to this, eat moderately, and do a minimum physical activity which is a low 20 minutes of light excercise per day (and that includes walking) and you should be good.

All this comes from personal experience.

Agree with you, but here I am talking about in general diet of developed nations, no doubts- confectioneries and sugar are as culpable as fat. But the value of calories provided by 1 unit of fat is more than twice of that of same unit of carbohydrate.
And FYI- FAT is stored as FAT, excess carbohydrate can be stored as FAT too, protein will never be converted to FAT, though interchange is possible for protein to be used as an energy source in body in certain circumstances.
If one really needs to lose weight sincerely, activity of more than 40 minutes a day with consistency of more than 4 days a week is required. Body generally doesn't burn FAT initially, so only when one is active for continuous duration of more than 30 minutes, it is possible.
Here I am talking about well proven and discovered science, and partial Personal experience........as I have never been on that side of BMI.....LOL
One more thing, no one eats sugar as a sole food, it is always used in recipes where fat is there to accompany. Unfortunately nature made it in a way that, when these two things combined they are feast for the senses, and Protein was kept behind in terms of delivering addictive taste.
Anyways..........Thanks for your inputs, take home message is low fat, low carbs, high and good quality protein in diet with moderately active lifestyle for healthy life.

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stumpy Laos Expert

18028POSTS

7 years ago

#11

Everything in moderation including exercise.

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Fred Indonesia Expert

30549POSTS

7 years ago

#12

I long long time ago in a past far away there was a caveman.
Lovely chap but he had a real problem finding fat to eat because animals were hard to catch, and sugar was a rare old game except when fruit was on the trees.
I'm only guessing here because I'm not old enough to have been around all those years ago, but I suggest Mister Ugg his mates were small and not fat.
Ugg, for t'was that caveman's name, had babies with a cave woman and they had babies and so on until those products of our ancestors (us) just pop down to McD and get all the fat and sugar we fancy - so we get fat.
Being rich and having as much cheap crap food as we can stuff down our faces is the one and only big cause of our wideness and consequent inability to get into small cars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKZ2ZqBYlrI

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Asif_Hassan Oman Advisor

258POSTS

7 years ago

#13

Whatever may be the real cause & culprit behind Obesity , the point here I was trying to make it some nations are getting hit by this very badly as compared to other nations so to know what is the difference like In Chinese, Japanese & Koreans the trend of getting fat is very low.

Fred Indonesia Expert

30549POSTS

7 years ago

#14

Asif_Hassan wrote:
the point here I was trying to make it some nations are getting hit by this very badly as compared to other nations so to know what is the difference like In Chinese, Japanese & Koreans the trend of getting fat is very low.

Cash
Most village and small town Indonesians are small in height and stomach, but big city well fed Indonesians are getting bigger and wider.

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XTang Bahrain/UAE/KSA Expert

11980POSTS

7 years ago

#15

You need to look beyond protein, carbs and all the medical reasons for obesity.

It is simply affluence as well as culture / lifestyle coupled with your choices that leads to this.

In the US for example, the abundance of fast food places on your door step leads you to make choices which are not healthy and then coupled with the lack of activity, impacts even more. In Japan, while the fast food places are there; they are not as abundant as the US and instead, you have a lot of places serving local food at affordable prices. If you observe people eating in Japan, a lot will be having their local items which are rice, fish, meat or whatever, but are essentially not fast or processed food.

Then when you throw in the equation of how much money you have; that makes it even more telling.

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anuoam4bubai Member

4POSTS

7 years ago

#16

What is the remedy from obesity?

qnbui Serial expat

329POSTS

7 years ago

#17

I've seen documentaries where they say that Guam and Samoa have the most obese population. It's from the process can food and their choice of proteins they eat in their daily lives and lack of exercise.

I've heard that in Vietnam, people are shamed for being fat. When they get older, some do get fat but rarely do I see an obese person in VN unless they are a tourist. They include a lot of vegetables in their diet due to being cheaper in cost but also because they've grown up eating a lot of vegetables. When I see McDonalds, KFC,... start to open up in VN, I fear that they will bring with it obesity in the long run.

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beppi Germany/Singapore Expert

15653POSTS

7 years ago

#18

anuoam4bubai wrote:
What is the remedy from obesity?

Eat less, eat healthier, exercise more. Simple.

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Ribosom VIP Member

944POSTS

7 years ago

#19

beppi wrote:
anuoam4bubai wrote:
What is the remedy from obesity?

Eat less, eat more healthy, exercise more. Simple.

Unless there is a psychological cause, then it becomes a bit more complicated.

beppi Germany/Singapore Expert

15653POSTS

7 years ago

#20

Ribosom wrote:
beppi wrote:
anuoam4bubai wrote:
What is the remedy from obesity?

Eat less, eat healthier, exercise more. Simple.

Unless there is a psychological cause, then it becomes a bit more complicated.

Not much difference, it just becomes:
Eat less, eat healthier, exercise more. Not so simple.

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