THE FAT-FULL GENERATION

THE FAT-FULL 'MICROWAVE' GENERATION

You don’t need to spend billions on research to prove the extent of overweight and obesity in Kenya, Africa and the world. All you need is to pay closer attention to your surrounding and you’ll suddenly notice numerous bulging stomachs, multiple folds on waists better known as ‘tires’, and a general population struggling to carry their overly heavy bodies around.

For years, NGOs, Faith Based Organizations, Community- Based Organizations and Governments have invested billions of dollars in Malnutrition in Africa and developing countries in general. Malnutrition indeed has been a big problem in Africa for centuries, but over the years, civilization introduced a new health nightmare; Overweight and Obesity.

Researchers and scientists have earned billions, investigating causes of this obvious ‘civilization syndrome’. A close analysis of the causes of obesity ‘discovered’ by research shows several things in common; urbanization, ignorance, greed, corruption and a complete societal rot.

Various professionals have been competing to market and prove their cases on the most effective overweight and obesity prevention and treatment method, including; diet, fitness, surgery, and psychological therapy among others.

Rogue business men and women have obviously not been left behind on the multi-billion dollar industry either. The media is flooded with countless weight-loss products and slimming ‘miracle’ pills that somehow claim to make fat suddenly vanish from your body. But what really is the truth about the causes of Overweight and Obesity, and how can this evident epidemic be stopped?

Let’s for a moment go back to basics. Did our great-grandfathers and great-great-grandfathers in Kenya and Africa in general have Overweight, Obesity and Non-Communicable Diseases issues? Well, in spite of the fact that there wasn’t extensive research at the time, I for sure believe these issues didn’t exist five-six generations back.

So what’s the problem? Why is the current generation, ‘the microwave generation’ full of fat? Are we eating too much food? Are we too lazy to work-out? Are we too stressed and eating too much when stressed out? Are we getting the wrong image of beauty from the media which is making us develop eating disorders which are eventually leading to abnormal eating patterns? Are we too ignorant to read food labels and are therefore eating and feeding our kids with garbage? Have we fallen prey to rogue farmers and businessmen who are feeding us with growth-hormone pumped farm produce and meats? Are we led by a government that cares less about what citizens are feeding on? Well, who are we to blame the government anyway? Most Kenyan leaders are just as ignorant if not more than the citizens they lead in terms of quality, healthy and organic food production and a million other things I dare not get into for now!

All the questions above are rhetorical and you already know the answer. Just like the Holy Book says “My people perish for lack of knowledge” and I must add greed and ignorance. As sad as that sounds, it’s the absolute truth.

Healthy foods have over the years purposely been made more expensive by greedy businessmen who are instead ‘kind enough’ to sell us, the wananchi and Africans in general, ‘cheaper’ food products. How noble right? Wrong! These  ‘rich fools’ as the bible calls them; may seem to be preventing us from dying of hunger, but the so called cheaper or more affordable  foods are way more expensive than you may think. In another article I’ll discuss the effects of the chemicals used in the cheap foods and their effects on your body.

Obesity and other Non-Communicable Diseases like diabetes, hypertension and infertility among others’ current statistics will shock you! These diseases are now killing way more people than Africa’s original problem, malnutrition.

One would expect the highest proportion of Kenyans and Africans in general to be in great health nutritionally, owing to the fact that there’s a lot of farming in Kenya. The pertinent question though is “what is the quality of our farm produce?” Kenyans generally like blame-shifting; ‘It’s the government!”, or “It’s the developed countries’ fault!” or “It’s the manufacturers’ fault!”

But let’s concentrate on the farmer first, what quality of fertilizer are you using? Is it organic or a chemical concentrate? Secondly to you the consumer, do you read what you’re buying before adding it to your shopping basket?

Need I say more? I can write this article for the rest of 2015 and still not finish it. But for the sake of those of us who dislike very long write-up like me, I’ll stop this one here, and break down this issue on the next article.

Choose good health over convenience people! Choose StellarAfya! (Excellent Health)