The health problems of excess body fat have been recognised for centuries — even the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates was concerned about the consequences of ‘corpulence’. The term ‘obesity’ was first used in the seventeenth century to refer to an excess of body fat that compromised health.
Obesity is associated with many health risks, including diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. The reason for all the concern in recent years is the dramatic rise in obesity rates, in both adults and children. A century ago, no more than one in 20 of the population were obese. By 1990 the figure had risen to more than one in 10, and now it’s one in four (www.noo.org.uk). Combining overweight and obesity categories together, almost three in four adults in the UK carry too much body fat.
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