By Lisa O’Malley of Linda.co.uk [1].
Never before have there been so many obese people in the Netherlands. 15.7 percent of adults are way overweight. Once you are obese, the consequences are not mild.
“Many people think: fat is a layer of blubber, that’s a cosmetic problem. But it’s more than that,” says internist endocrinologist and obesity professor Liesbeth van Rossum of Erasmus MC.
Obesity
Obesity is a chronic disease. “Your fat is an organ and has an important function for your body. If your belt needs to get looser and looser, chances are you are developing obesity,” Van Rossum warns. “With excess belly fat, it can become slightly inflamed. It doesn’t get pus or turn red, but it does something to hormone production from your adipose tissue. That causes the communication between your adipose tissue, brain and other organs to stop working properly.”
In addition, obesity is not just a disease in itself. “It is also a gateway disease to over two hundred other diseases. Like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. And the inflammatory substances can also affect the brain and other organs. That can lead to depression, anxiety and 13 types of cancer.” Many chronic diseases that patients have in addition to obesity are caused or exacerbated by their obesity.
Causes
How you become obese is related to many factors. It’s not just a matter of one bag of chips too many. “The causes are very diverse. Lifestyle is an important one, but there are seven categories of causes including, for example, social and psychological factors. Often it’s a combination of stress, social situation, lifestyle, hormones and medications, for example. And once you have it, it is also difficult to get rid of it.”
In fact, getting your weight down once you are obese does not happen overnight. Even if you have been obese in the past and are now at a healthy weight, it is more difficult to stay at that reduced weight. “A kind of reprogramming takes place with obesity, where your fat cells change permanently. When you start losing weight, that makes your body want to go back to the higher weight it had before.”
Prevention
So once you are obese, you are far from home. That’s why prevention is so important, but our food environment throws a spanner in the works, Van Rossum said. “80 percent of products in the supermarket are not healthy. Packaging is often misleading and you sometimes really have to crawl through the supermarket on your knees to find a healthy product.” That seems to be one of the explanations why there are now more obese people than ever in the Netherlands.
“Since the 1970s, the amount of unhealthy products has increased tremendously. There is a lot more processed food. We have also started to exercise less and there are more endocrine disruptors in our environment that seem to be doing their bit, such as certain cosmetics and substances in plastic items.”
Government and industry play a crucial role in prevention, says Van Rossum. “It is their turn now. Healthy food must become cheaper and more available and unhealthy food more expensive. Healthy eating must become the easy choice.”
Stigma
While obesity is dangerous and the increase worrisome, Van Rossum also calls for people who are obese not to be judged. “A big problem with obesity is also the stigma around it, the prejudice. People who are obese are by default seen as having no self-discipline and being lazy.” It is important to be aware of the range of causes that affect a person’s weight as well as the added challenge of losing weight.
Despite the challenge, it is indeed possible to lose weight long-term if you are obese. This requires optimizing any underlying causes and further healthy eating and extra exercise. Possibly also additional treatments that you can discuss with your doctor.
But regardless of what your weight is: regardless, it is important for everyone to adopt a healthy lifestyle, Van Rossum stresses. “Eat varied, unprocessed foods as much as possible and combine that with sufficient exercise, sleep and relaxation. That’s always a good basis.”
[1] (2024, March 18). Never so much obesity in the Netherlands: ‘It’s a gateway disease to over 200 other diseases’. Linda.
