Epidemic of obesity (Chapter 14 of the book "Problems of Nutrition and Longevity")
In chapter 14 of his unpublished memoirs “Problems of nutrition and longevity”, Zhores A. Medvedev examines various aspects of the problem of obesity, starting from the historical and social aspects of the phenomenon. The industrialization of food production in the XX century greatly contributed to the diminution of prices on food products. Overeating as a mass phenomenon appeared in economically developed countries already in the 1990s. Long-term overeating and the massive increase of obesity that resulted from it could not but impact human health. Already in 1997, the WHO warned about the outbreak of an epidemic of obesity. By 2000, the global epidemic of obesity had been identified as one of the main health risk factors. The number of overweight or clinically obese people exceeded one billion worldwide. Medvedev shows to what extent obesity represents a serious health risk. At the same time, he remarks that people who are “moderately” overweight have the highest life expectancy. In some paragraphs, he also examines such aspects of the problem of obesity as the economic consequences of the obesity epidemic, the physiology of obesity, how to prevent and treat obesity, which medication has been developed against obesity, and finally, the hypothesis that high prices on industrial biofuel could lead to an increase of prices on food products because of the concurrence for agricultural land, and in this way slow down the obesity epidemic.