Obesity is a chronic illness afflicting millions of Australians. Obesity is defined by a body mass index (BMI) over 30. It causes many problems which impair someone’s daily life and wellbeing and reduce one’s life expectancy. Such problems include diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, sleep apnoea, reflux, fatty liver, joint pains from arthritis and a number of different cancers. There are a number of reasons why someone develops obesity. These include the ready availability of high calorie foods in our society, inadequate exercise, problems with an individual’s metabolism (eg. polycystic ovarian syndrome PCOS), genetic problems and psychological difficulties. Losing weight benefits health and wellbeing dramatically. Dieting and lifestyle modification are critical to achieving this, although when obesity is chronic often these are not effective or sustainable in the context of our society.
