Word count: 1,816
Learning outcome:
Discuss the prevention strategies and treatments for overeating and the development of obesity.
Obesity is the excess of body fat which can result in an impairment of general physical
health. It is beginning to be an epidemic with around one billion of adults being overweight.
Obesity can be caused because of multiple factors such as genetic predisposition, neurobiology,
sedentary lifestyle, overeating, cultural norms, socio-economic disadvantage, cognitive restraint,
false hope syndrome, and more. Obesity can sometimes be classified as an addiction which
refers to an uncontrollable behaviour in using the specific substance that they are dependent on.
Because it’s considered an epidemic, there are a range of prevention and treatment strategies
that are made in order to help people overcome obesity and not start the habits in the first
place. The National Health Service of U.K (NHS) has made the Change4Life campaign which aims
to prevent obesity from an early age. There are also a number of treatments for the people who
are already obese such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), dieting, surgical treatments, and
drug treatments. There will be a greater focus on CBT and dieting as obesity treatments.
The Change4Life campaign which was launched in 2009 was made in order to ensure that
children are following a healthy lifestyle because obesity can start at a young age if the lifestyle
of the parents is unhealthy. The main goal of the campaign is divided into smaller goals such as
helping children to reduce fat intake, control portion size, exercise more, regular meals, reduce
the amount of snacks, and avoid sedentary lifestyles. They have therefore developed eight
slogans of behaviours on posters some of which are “Cut Back Fat”, “60 Active Minutes”, and
“Me Sized Meals” and they have featured on television advertising. The campaign also measured
the amount of people that were aware of those behaviours by distributing questionnaires to
parents in January 2009 and did the same in December 2009. They have found that all of the
behaviours had a significant increase in the percentage of people aware of it (such as “Me Sized
Meals” which increased by 32% in one year), except for one which was “5 A Day”. The campaign
has generated stories of families who are living a healthy lifestyle in order to bring normality to
Learning outcome:
Discuss the prevention strategies and treatments for overeating and the development of obesity.
Obesity is the excess of body fat which can result in an impairment of general physical
health. It is beginning to be an epidemic with around one billion of adults being overweight.
Obesity can be caused because of multiple factors such as genetic predisposition, neurobiology,
sedentary lifestyle, overeating, cultural norms, socio-economic disadvantage, cognitive restraint,
false hope syndrome, and more. Obesity can sometimes be classified as an addiction which
refers to an uncontrollable behaviour in using the specific substance that they are dependent on.
Because it’s considered an epidemic, there are a range of prevention and treatment strategies
that are made in order to help people overcome obesity and not start the habits in the first
place. The National Health Service of U.K (NHS) has made the Change4Life campaign which aims
to prevent obesity from an early age. There are also a number of treatments for the people who
are already obese such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), dieting, surgical treatments, and
drug treatments. There will be a greater focus on CBT and dieting as obesity treatments.
The Change4Life campaign which was launched in 2009 was made in order to ensure that
children are following a healthy lifestyle because obesity can start at a young age if the lifestyle
of the parents is unhealthy. The main goal of the campaign is divided into smaller goals such as
helping children to reduce fat intake, control portion size, exercise more, regular meals, reduce
the amount of snacks, and avoid sedentary lifestyles. They have therefore developed eight
slogans of behaviours on posters some of which are “Cut Back Fat”, “60 Active Minutes”, and
“Me Sized Meals” and they have featured on television advertising. The campaign also measured
the amount of people that were aware of those behaviours by distributing questionnaires to
parents in January 2009 and did the same in December 2009. They have found that all of the
behaviours had a significant increase in the percentage of people aware of it (such as “Me Sized
Meals” which increased by 32% in one year), except for one which was “5 A Day”. The campaign
has generated stories of families who are living a healthy lifestyle in order to bring normality to
