Obesity History: Is Overweight Always Bad

Recently, the presenter of one well-known health program said that nature does not need people older than 50 years. And nature has found a way to get rid of them. By overeating. In our country, the number of obese people reaches a maximum of 55 years.

Obesity is the main cause of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, premature mortality. The British national study of body mass index began in 1980 and showed a disappointing result. By 1993, obesity increased among men by 13 percent, among women by 16 percent, and by 2005 by 23 percent and 25 percent, respectively. Moreover, female overweight correlates with social status and income. The highest percentage of obese women among those with low income. Economic factors affect a man’s weight less.

Has it always been like this? Is obesity a problem only in the 21st century?

This is not an unprecedented situation. In the 1920s, physician Sir George Newman believed that "excessive and inappropriate nutrition, combined with a lack of fresh air and exercise" is responsible for the fact that people began to gain extra pounds. He admitted that some "no doubt were malnourished" in 1931, but also claimed that some were "overfed and did not give their bodies respite from a large amount of food."

Doctors began to sound the alarm about obesity in 1933. In magazines, it was noted that these days there was no more popular topic than losing weight. Such concern to some seemed inappropriate during the economic depression, high unemployment, hunger marches, and poverty of the working class.

The problem of obesity and weight loss was relevant in Europe between the First and Second World Wars. The middle class suffered the most from it. People basically led a sedentary lifestyle.

Not always in history do people want to lose weight. Sometimes, even vice versa. It was an honor to be fat during the Stone Age. Fat, then the main one.

The first archaeological sites, small statuettes, indicate that overweight women existed 30,000 years ago. The most famous among them dates from about 29,500 BC. It is called Venus Willendorf. This is a figurine of a naked faceless woman with a carefully thought-out hairstyle, beautiful magnificent breasts, large hips, a rounded belly. It was discovered in one of the oldest graves in Austria in 1908.

The figurine itself is not so unique. Similar objects have been excavated elsewhere. Scientists suggest that Venus was a symbol of fertility, beauty, and maybe it was a talisman for good luck.

Nevertheless, the Old Testament, New Testament, early Christian writings and the Talmud have a negative attitude to obesity:

Judges 3:17: "And he presented gifts to Eglon king of Moab; Eglon was a very fat man."

Proverbs 23:20: "Do not be between those who are drunk with wine, between those who are saturated with meat."

Philippians 3:19: "Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and their glory is in shame, they think of the earth."

Gluttony by the fourth-century monk Evagrius Ponticus was included in the list of seven deadly sins. Thus, Christianity presented obesity as a shameful phenomenon.

And in the Talmud, we can find a story about how, in fact, the first plastic surgery was performed. Rabbi Eleazar, who lived in the second century, suffered from obesity. He was given a sleeping pill and had surgery. His stomach was cut and numerous fat baskets removed.

The fact that excess weight interferes with good health was understood in ancient Greece, Egypt, and India.

Hippocrates, doctor of the 5th-4th centuries BC, wrote:

"All diseases begin in the intestines. Everything in excess is opposed to nature. If we could give each person the right nutrition and the necessary set of physical exercises, not so little, but not too much, we would find the safest way to health.Let food be your medicine. It’s very unhealthy for your health to take more food than the body needs. Especially when a person doesn’t exercise to cope with excess food. The most famous doctors treat me when no one at the same time The user no exercise to cope with this excess. The most famous doctors treated by changing diet and way of life of the patient. "

He also said: "Obesity is not only a disease, but also a harbinger of others. Those who are constitutionally very fat are more likely to die quickly than those who are thin."

The term "diabetes" was first used by the Roman physician Areteus. He described him as "terrible suffering, not very frequent among men, dissolving flesh and limbs in the urine."

After the fall of Rome over the next thousand years, into the Dark and Middle Ages of European history, scientists were mainly archivist monks. During the Renaissance, artists, writers and musicians rediscovered the secrets of Antiquity and made tremendous progress in art, science and medicine lagged behind. Overweight began to be treated a little differently. Obesity was no longer considered a big problem. In some European societies, it was a privilege of the upper classes.

Moreover, some artists considered it beautiful. Pay attention to Rubensian women.

However, often overweight was the subject of a parody. For example, the Shakespearean hero Sir John Falstaff.

The history of obesity also includes various tribal customs, such as fattening young girls and women to make them more desirable. This custom has been documented in Afghanistan, Fiji, Jamaica, Kuwait, Mauritania, Nauru, Samoa, South Africa, Tahiti and Tonga. Mostly South Pacific island states prevail on this list. An example of this is the custom of feeding, which was practiced in Tahiti. Young women were locked up in a special house for a year, where they did not have the opportunity to do the simplest things. The fattened woman was subsequently introduced to the local leader. If the leader believed that she was fed enough, then for the whole tribe she became the standard of beauty and fertility.

In the 18th century, doctors began to pay serious attention to being overweight. True, their opinions did not always coincide. The Scottish man William Bought believed that it can be considered a disease only if a person has shortness of breath. Swiss von Galler claimed that only southern residents are subject to excess weight. It seemed to him that in hot countries the body gives off less heat, and therefore, as a result, excess weight arises.

In the 1830s, such a branch of medicine as natural hygiene began to declare itself. Its founders promoted vegetarianism.

No matter how you treat fat people throughout the history of mankind, one thing is clear: overweight is a health problem.

Watch the video: Weighing the Facts of Obesity (April 2024).