Obesity
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Nowadays, obesity is highly distributed in the world communities and it is dangerous due to its effect on human beings. Are urban spaces a solution for this problem? If it is a solution, do the engineers hold the full responsibility, or is participation needed from others? Moreover, there are examples of two cities that built urban city centers to solve the obesity problem. Thus, this essay is going to talk about the causes and effects of obesity in societies, the role of engineers to solve this problem, and how the two case studies mentioned tried to approach the problem.
Obesity is a serious problem in our societies these days, and a huge number of people are facing it in many countries around the world specially children (aged 9-14). It is dangerous for the massive risks it might cause on the human body and brain. So what is the real meaning of Obesity, and what are the main causes of this issue? According to NHS (2014) “Obesity is a term used to describe somebody who is very overweight, with a lot of body fat.” It is a real common problem because between every four adults there is one obese, and between 5 children also there is one. But how could we know if we are facing this problem? There are a lot of ways to know if you are overweight or not, but the most useful and common method is the body mass index (BMI). The (BMI) scale is a way to measure your best healthy weight associated with your height. But what are the threats of Obesity on human beings? It has a lot of risks which may affect on the human body, such as heart diseases, type 2 diabetes, and it might lead to some kinds of cancer. However, it can affect the human brain or lead to a psychological situation for example depression. After talking about the risks of obesity, what are the causes of this problem? Scientists and nutrition doctors agreed that the primary cause of obesity is eating more carbohydrates than your body needs, but in my point of view, I think that the main cause is the lack of activities. To solve this problem people need to exercise more and to have urban city centers, which can they move into it instead of using the public transportations, and this is related to the Engineers as they could make this happen in the real life.
These days engineers are doing their best to improve cities, but how can they make the city centers more active and increase physical activities of people to prevent Obesity? This matter is especially related to Civil engineers as they hold the responsibility of building urban city centers and modern buildings, which means that prevent of obesity is between Engineers hands. The solution that they can do to stop this problem is many things actually, for example, they can improve the buildings by make it more active for people so they can increase their physical activities, but firstly, they must work on the infrastructure which is the primary factor of building a city, and make it more convenient for people to move or even excursive in the city. Moreover, they can make the city center much better for people to move, by making it without traffic or cars and make a loop for cars just near the center, which make the only way to transport in the center is by walking or cycling. But are the Engineers are the only solution who can reduce the rates of Obesity in different societies? Not only Engineers must hold responsibility, even after building these city centers or buildings there are other factors, which are we going to talk about can help to stop this issue from our societies.
Engineers themself cannot hold the full responsibility of the huge increase in obesity rates, even if they build urban spaces how can we make sure that people will start doing physical activities, however, there are a lot of people can help in this situation to prevent Obesity, and in this point I am talking about families, governments, doctors, and even the people themselves. First of all, families: a family is a really important thing in societies and it cannot work with it for its value, they can be very helpful in this problem, especially for children, as the parents can inspire their children to be more active, “Studies show that parents are particularly important as models, encouragers, and facilitators of physical activity in children and adolescents” (Harvard, N.D.). Encouraging them is not the only way they can make sport trips or take them to any sport event when it is possible, and buying them sport equipment also can be a reason to improve their activities, another thing parents can do for their children is following a healthy diet and put them away from junk food. In addition, governments can play a role in this game, by hosting more sport events with prizes for adults and even children to cheer them to be more active, they also can add more physical classes in school curriculums, “ Increasing physical activity sessions and developing physical