Obesity
The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines obesity as a disease where someone is very overweight and is measured by their body mass index (BMI) being greater or equal to 30kg/m2. WHO statistics show that this is a growing disease worldwide with around a third of the world being obese or overweight. Being overweight or obese is the 5th most common cause of death. At least 2.8 million adults die from being overweight or obese each year. Obesity is therefore a huge problem in the world with both the health of people and the cost to governments through obesity related illnesses.
1. Summarise one way in which Science has been used to help solve the problem of obesity.
One way that Science has helped to solve the problem of obesity is
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Describe one implication of using science to solve this particular issue
One implication of scientists discovering how sugar works in the body to lead to obesity is that we can now see that low fat foods that have had sugar added aren’t as healthy as the public think. That means that we can now re-educate and raise awareness for healthier eating. As a result of this, Australia’s peak health authorities have launched new campaigns to encourage people to rethink sugary drinks and have updated dietary guidelines to include warnings about sugar consumption. People are now starting to recognise that we’ve been eating too much
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These hormones are chemical messengers that balance body processes. One body process is what happens when your blood sugar levels are too high or low. When eating lots of sugar, your blood sugar concentration goes up. The pancreas produces a hormone called insulin, which is a chemical messenger that helps to regulate carbohydrate and fat metabolism. After the insulin is produced, it helps to transport the sugar into your cells. Any extra sugar goes into your liver. If there is too much extra sugar to be stored in the liver or cells, it is converted to, and stored as fat. This therefore can lead to obesity. By understanding how the endocrine system works and how obesity comes about in the body, we can address the issue by looking at ways to minimise imbalances that occur within the system. We can do this by decreasing our sugar intake so that we don’t have too much sugar reserve that turns into fat. We can also monitor insulin levels in people at risk of obesity to make sure that their system is working