{"id":20385,"date":"2019-10-11T10:05:16","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T10:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/?p=20385"},"modified":"2019-10-11T10:05:16","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T10:05:16","slug":"world-obesity-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/world-obesity-day\/","title":{"rendered":"World Obesity Day: Electronic Devices and Obesity"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-fullwidth-1  fusion-parallax-none nonhundred-percent-fullwidth\" style=\"border-bottom-width: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-bottom-style: solid;border-top-style: solid;padding-bottom:20px;padding-top:20px;padding-left:;padding-right:;\"><style type=\"text\/css\" scoped=\"scoped\">.fusion-fullwidth-1 {\r\n                            padding-left: px !important;\r\n                            padding-right: px !important;\r\n                        }<\/style><div class=\"fusion-row\"><div class=\"fusion-title title fusion-title-center fusion-title-size-one\"><div class=\"title-sep-container title-sep-container-left\"><div class=\"title-sep sep-double sep-solid\" style=\"border-color:#5f80a0;\"><\/div><\/div><h1 class=\"title-heading-center\"><span style=\"color: #5f80a0;\">The connection between obesity and the use of electronic devices<\/span><\/h1><div class=\"title-sep-container title-sep-container-right\"><div class=\"title-sep sep-double sep-solid\" style=\"border-color:#5f80a0;\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>World obesity day<\/strong> happens every year on the 11<sup>th<\/sup> of October to raise awareness on this global issue. According\u00a0to the World Health Organisation (WHO), obesity\/overweight is an <strong>excessive fat accumulation presenting health risks<\/strong>.: diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and other chronic diseases.\u00a0In 2016, around <strong>650 million<\/strong> people above 18 years old were obese and from 1975 to 2016, the number of obese people worldwide <strong>tripled<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Some risk factors for obesity are:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 25px; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #5f80a0;\"> \u2666<\/span> <strong>Genes inherited from parents<\/strong>: they influence the way our bodies store fat.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 25px; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #5f80a0;\"> \u2666<\/span> <strong>Lifestyle<\/strong>: the amount of exercise and the way we eat influence weight gain\/loss.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 25px; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #5f80a0;\"> \u2666<\/span> <strong>Ageing<\/strong>: as we age, we tend to adopt a less active lifestyle and go through hormonal changes. Both\u00a0are linked with gaining weight.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 25px; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #5f80a0;\"> \u2666<\/span> <strong>Economic and social issues<\/strong>: the lack of education and awareness regarding obesity can lead to risk behaviours.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 25px; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #5f80a0;\"> \u2666<\/span> <strong>Use of electronic devices<\/strong>: this one may be a surprise,\u00a0but studies link electronic devices with obesity risk.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In recent years, we have become more <strong>sedentary<\/strong> and screen time (any time spent using electronic devices or watching television)\u00a0has been increasing.\u00a0We tend to <strong>prioritise <\/strong>our electronic devices over healthier habits. Our leisure-time activities are now related to technology, which made us less active and more likely to gain weight since they require almost no energy. This is a tendency that has been growing alongside the development of technology. Our work dynamic has also been changing. We witnessed the introduction of technology and electronic devices in the workplace in almost every field. A lot of jobs that before required physical strength can now be performed through technology. These changes are causes for weight gain as they decrease\u00a0energy use.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A study from Rice University showed that <strong>switching between electronic devices<\/strong> can cause a lack of self-control and a greater predisposition for unhealthy food. \u00a0A part of the study consisted of measuring the brain activity\u00a0of 72 participants while they switched between electronic devices and watched random images, which included <strong>unhealthy food<\/strong> photos.\u00a0When these photos came up,\u00a0the part of the brain related to food temptation was more <strong>active<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Richard Lopez, the study\u2019s author, said that even if the results were introductory and not developed until the right extend,\u00a0they should be taken into consideration since they show the <strong>connection<\/strong> between electronic devices switch and obesity.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Researches from the Simon Bolivar University (SBU) in Colombia showed that younger adults who use smartphones over five hours a day have a <strong>43% risk<\/strong> of having obesity. Additionally, the researchers showed a <strong>link<\/strong> between smartphone use and not exercising, eating less healthy food and a higher BMI (index used to qualify someone as\u00a0overweight or obese).These recent\u00a0discoveries should warn us about the <strong>dangerous<\/strong> link between electronic devices abuse and obesity. This issue needs to be tackled, and it is\u00a0mandatory to adopt <strong>strategies<\/strong> to prevent it. Here are some examples:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 25px; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #5f80a0;\"> \u2666<\/span> Campaigns to promote physical activities through electronic devices<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 25px; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #5f80a0;\"> \u2666<\/span> Educate people about the dangers of no physical activity and the dangers of obesity<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 25px; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #5f80a0;\"> \u2666<\/span> Fitness apps are also good ways to promote physical activities and track progress<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 25px; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #5f80a0;\"> \u2666<\/span> Create and promote interactive video games and television programmes that encourage exercise<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 25px; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #5f80a0;\"> \u2666<\/span> Workplaces, schools and, universities have an important responsibility in this matter since they should implement activities that prevent obesity and new ways to reduce the unnecessary use of electronic devices<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 25px; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #5f80a0;\"> \u2666<\/span> Public spaces should also be transformed to promote exercise, through the creation of bike paths, free working machines, free exercises classes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Measures like this must be implemented, as soon as possible, so that we assist a diminished connection between obesity and the use of technology.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><u>References:<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Obesity and overweight, February 2018, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/fact-sheets\/detail\/obesity-and-overweight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">World Health Organization<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Digital device overload linked to obesity risk, April 2019, <a href=\"http:\/\/news.rice.edu\/2019\/04\/01\/digital-device-overload-linked-to-obesity-risk-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rice University<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Using a smartphone for this long could raise the risk of obesity, July 2019, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/using-smartphone-this-long-could-raise-risk-obesity-1451104\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Newsweek<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":20396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","myguten_meta_block_field":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}