What is obesity? What are its causes?

Is obesity a disease? What are its causes? Dietician and health educator Gagandeep Kaur Cheema shines a light on all of these questions and answers our listeners questions on Talkback.

Dietician and health educator Gagan Kaur Cheema explains the reasons behind obesity and answers SBS Punjabi listeners' queries. Source: Flickr

Speaking to SBS Punjabi, Gagan listed five major causes of Obesity:

1. Eating more calories/kilojoules than one uses

2. Reduced physical activity due to modern living

3. Changes in food supply - availability of energy-dense nutrient-poor foods and drinks at relatively lower costs

4. Birth factors: e.g. poor nutrition in utero

5. Genetic factors: For many decades several genetic factors have been identified that are responsible for very rare, single gene forms of obesity. However one thing is clear that these genetic factors make only a small contribution to obesity risk, and that our genes are not our destiny.

Gagan Kaur Cheema, dietician and Punjabi health educator, talking to SBS Punjabi about obesity, its causes and management Source: Supplied

She went on to respond to listener's queries via talkback, on SBS Punjabi program of Thursday, September 7, 2017. Above is an audio link to that interview and talkback, in case you missed it.

The Obesity Myth started on September 4 at 7.30pm on SBS television, followed by two more episodes at the same time on Monday September 11 and Monday September 18.

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