Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T08:53:12.169Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Obesity

from Medical topics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2014

By
Jennifer J. Thomas  and
Kelly D. Brownell
Edited by
Susan Ayers ,
Andrew Baum ,
Chris McManus ,
Stanton Newman ,
Kenneth Wallston ,
John Weinman  and
Robert West
Jennifer J. Thomas
Affiliation:
Yale University
Kelly D. Brownell
Affiliation:
Yale University
Susan Ayers
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Andrew Baum
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Chris McManus
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital Medical School
Stanton Newman
Affiliation:
University College and Middlesex School of Medicine
Kenneth Wallston
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing
John Weinman
Affiliation:
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's
Robert West
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London
Get access

Summary

Introduction

A critical turning point in the history of human food consumption has become evident. With famine and undernutrition the central food issues for much of human history, we now face the opposite: overnutrition and obesity. The number of individuals who are overnourished now equals or exceeds the number undernourished (WHO, 1998), and the prevalence of obesity is increasing in every corner of the world. The percentage of individuals in the USA who are either overweight or obese rose from 55.9% in 1994 to 65.7% in 2002 (Flegal et al., 2002; Hedley et al., 2004) leading the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to apply the word ‘epidemic’ (CDC, 2004).

The most widely used index of obesity is the body mass index (BMI), which is calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared (i.e. kg/m2). The World Health Organization defined obesity as a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2, given epidemiological data showing that mortality at this weight is increased by 30% (Manson et al., 1995). Premature deaths associated with obesity are primarily attributable to cardiovascular disease, Type II diabetes and several cancers (Pi-Sunyer, 1993) (see chapters on ‘Coronary heart disease’ and ‘Diabetes mellitus’). Obesity also carries many additional complications including hypertension, sleep apnoea, gall bladder disease and osteoarthritis (see ‘Hypertension’, ‘Sleep apnoea’ and ‘Osteoarthritis’). Some, but not all, data suggest that obesity is associated with increased risk for psychological distress, including binge eating and depression.

Type
Chapter
Information
Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health and Medicine , pp. 797 - 800
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Almiron-Roig, E., Chen, Y. & Drewnowski, A. (2003). Liquid calories and the failure of satiety: how good is the evidence?Obesity Reviews, 4, 201–12.Google Scholar
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2004). Soft drinks in schools. Pediatrics, 113, 152–4.
Birch, L.L. (1999). Development of food preferences. Annual Nutrition Review, 19, 41–62.Google Scholar
Blackburn, G.L. (1995). Effect of degree of weight loss on health benefits. Obesity Research, 3(Suppl.), 211–16.
Bouchard, C.B. (1994). Genetics of obesity: Overview and research direction. In Bouchard, C.B. (Ed.). The genetics of obesity (pp. 223–33). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Bray, G.A. (1998). Contemporary diagnosis and management of obesity. Newton, PA: Handbooks in Healthcare.
Brownell, K.D. (1986). Public health approaches to obesity and its management. Annual Review of Public Health, 7, 521–33.Google Scholar
Brownell, K.D. (1994). Get slim with higher taxes (Op Ed.). New York Times, December 15, A-29.Google Scholar
Brownell, K.D., Stunkard, A.J. & Albaum, J.M. (1980). Evaluation and modification of exercise patterns in the natural environment. American Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 1540–5.Google Scholar
Brownell, K.D. & Horgen, K.B. (2004). Food fight: the inside story of the food industry, America's obesity crisis, and what we can do about it. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity and overweight. Retrieved November 18, 2004, from www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/index.htm.
Colditz, G.A. (1999). Economic costs of obesity and inactivity. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 31(Suppl. 1), S663–7.Google Scholar
Davidson, M.H., Hauptman, J., DiGirolamo, M.et al. (1999). Weight control and risk factor reduction in obese subjects treated for 2 years with Orlistat: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, 281, 235–42.Google Scholar
Drewnowski, A. & Barratt-Fornell, A. (2004). Do healthier diets cost more?Nutrition Today, 29, 161–8.Google Scholar
Flegal, K.M., Carroll, M.D., Ogden, C.L. & Johnson, C.L. (2002). Prevalence and trends in obesity among U.S. adults, 1999–2000. Journal of the American Medical Association, 288, 1723–7.Google Scholar
Foster, G.D. (1995). Reasonable weights: determinants, definition, and practice. In Allison, D.B. & Pi-Sunyar, F.X. (Eds.). Obesity treatment: establishing goals, improving outcomes, and reviewing the research agenda (pp. 35–44). New York: Plenum.
Hedley, A.A., Ogden, C.L., Johnson, C.L.et al. (2004). Prevalence of overweight and obesity among U.S. children, adolescents, and adults, 1999–2002. Journal of the American Medical Association, 291, 2847–50.Google Scholar
Horgen, K.D., Choate, M. & Brownell, K.D. (2001). Television and children's nutrition. In Singer, D.G. & Singer, J.L. (Eds.). Handbook of children and the media (pp. 447–61). San Francisco: Sage.
Jacobson, M.F. & Brownell, K.D. (2000). Small taxes on soft drinks and snack foods to promote health. American Journal of Public Health, 90, 854–7.Google Scholar
Koplan, J.P. & Dietz, W.H. (1999). Caloric imbalance and public health policy. Journal of the American Medical Association, 282, 1579–81.Google Scholar
Lean, M.E.J. (1997). Sibutramine – A review of clinical efficacy. International Journal of Obesity, 21(Suppl.), 30–6.Google Scholar
Manson, J.E., Willett, W.C., Stampfer, M.J.et al. (1995). Body weight and mortality among women. New England Journal of Medicine, 333, 677–85.Google Scholar
Mokdad, A.H., Bowman, B.A., Ford, E.S.et al. (2001). The continuing epidemics of obesity and diabetes in the United States. Journal of the American Medical Association, 286, 1195–1200.Google Scholar
National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (1998). Clinical guidelines on the identification, evaluation, and treatment of overweight andobesity in adults: the evidence report. Obesity Research, 6(Suppl.), 5–210.
Nestle, M. (2002). Food politics: how the food industry influences nutrition and health. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Nestle, M. & Jacobson, M.F. (2000). Halting the obesity epidemic: a public health policy approach. Public Health Reports, 115, 12–24.Google Scholar
Painter, J.E., Wansink, B. & Hieggelke, J.B. (2002). How visibility and convenience influence candy consumption. Appetite, 33, 237–8.Google Scholar
Pi-Sunyer, F.X. (1993). Medical hazards of obesity. Annals of Internal Medicine, 119, 655–60.Google Scholar
Price, R.A. (2002). Genetics and common obesities: background, current status, strategies and future prospects. In Wadden, T.A. & Stunkard, A.J. (Eds.). Handbook of obesity treatment (pp. 73–94). New York: Guilford Press.
Pronk, N.P. & Wing, R.R. (1994). Physical activity and long-term maintenance of weight loss. Obesity Research, 2, 587–99.Google Scholar
Puhl, R. & Brownell, K.D. (2001). Bias, discrimination, and obesity. Obesity Research, 9, 788–805.Google Scholar
Rolls, B.J., Roe, L.S., Kral, T.V.E., Meengs, J.S. & Wall, D.E. (2004). Increasing the portion size of a packaged snack increases energy intake in men and women. Appetite, 42, 63–9.Google Scholar
Schmitz, M.K. & Jeffery, R.W. (2000). Public health interventions for the prevention and treatment of obesity. Medical Clinics of North America, 84, 491–512.Google Scholar
Story, M. & French, S. (2004). Food advertising and marketing directed at children and adolescents in the U.S. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 1, 1–17.Google Scholar
Stunkard, A.J., Sorensen, T.I., Hanis, C.et al. (1986). An adoption study of human obesity. New England Journal of Medicine, 314, 193–8.Google Scholar
Torgerson, J.S., Lissner, L., Lindross, A.K., Kruijer, H. & Sjostrom, L. (1997). VLCD plus dietary and behavioral support versus support alone in the treatment of severe obesity: a randomised two-year clinical trial. International Journal of Obesity, 21, 987–94.Google Scholar
Wadden, T.A. & Foster, G.D. (2000). Behavioral treatment of obesity. Medical Clinics of North America, 84, 441–61.Google Scholar
World Health Organization. (1998). Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization.
Young, L.R. & Nestle, M. (2003). Expanding portion sizes in the US marketplace: implications for nutrition counseling. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 103, 231–4.Google Scholar
Zhang, Y., Proenca, R., Maffei, M.et al. (1994). Positional cloning of the mouse obese gene and its human homologue. Nature, 372, 425–32.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×