May 03, 2008

Advent of science and technology in every field of life has completely altered our lifestyle. Traditional norms have now become a part of archives. As everything has a darker side, latest technology, too, has a number of dire aspects. Majority of us prefer to splurge our time on computers, cell phones and iPods and our hectic and busy everyday life has affected our eating routine. We choose food stuff that takes less time to eat and is easily available.

Earlier only the nomads used to get the food from where it was obtainable because they were ignorant of their next stopover. The trend of this fast-food travelled from Europe and America to Asia.

At present almost each and every city of Pakistan has a number of these self-service restaurants. Most of the youth like to hang out in these sophisticated eateries unaware of the fact that these eat outs are causing obesity. All of us devour sumptuous fast foods including pizzas, cheese burgers, fried chicken and hotdogs but from the health point of view, these starchy foods are indigestible. This corpulence among youth is burgeoning so rampantly that WHO has declared obesity as a “global epidemic”. Not only Pakistan but all parts of the world especially America are seriously being affected by obesity among the youth.

Obesity is a great problem; rather it is the root of almost all diseases. The chief food related illnesses are heart diseases and diabetes. Diabetes in youth can cause serious heart problems, blindness, kidney problem and hypertension as well. We should remember that once we gain weight and become obese it requires a lot of effort to come back to our normal size. According to WHO, “By 2025, there would be 300 million cases of obesity related diseases and half of them would be in Asia.” This means that the health of all fast food aficionados is gravely at stake. All of these diseases can only be avoided by changing our dietary habits. We should prefer light and home-made food to junk food. The quantity of green veggies should be increased in our carte du jour. We should reduce the time we spend with our computers rather we should take exercise in this time.

Schools and all other institutions can play their part by making the students aware of the problems related to fast foods. So, the best and long term change can only be expected by adopting simple and healthy eating habits.