The evolution of Obesity

The evolution of Obesity

During the history of human evolution the process of accumulation of body fat was being selected because it was beneficial in an environment where food was scarce and the periods in which an individual could pass without finding an appropriate source of nutrition were frequent and long (Speakman , 2007; Prentice et al., 2008, Carvalho, 2009).

More recently, from the evolutionary point of view, two major changes that the introduction of agriculture brought were regular exposure to famine and development of social hierarchies that result in a differential exposure to environmental stresses (Wells, 2006). There are certain normal stereotypes that were created as "fat is beauty" or "eat like an abbot," for the accumulation of fat was a sign of health, status and wealth.

With the rise of industrialization occurred transport improvements, significant reduction of physical effort labor and access to high-calorie and mass production food, which was creating an increasingly obesogenic environment (Bellisari, 2008). With this improvements of living conditions and access to nutritional sources, especially in the last 30 years of the twentieth century in developed countries and more recently in developing countries, this feature is no longer beneficial and was becoming a problem (Bellisari , 2008; Carvalho, 2009).

In 1998 the World Health Organization has recognized obesity as a chronic disease, affecting both developed and developing countries, and adults and children alike. It is a major public health problem and is overcome problems such as malnutrition and infectious diseases (WHO, 1998).

Encarnação, 2011: Breakfast skipping and Obesity in Portuguese school children: Association with behavioral and family characteristics - unpublished Master thesis in Human Evolution and Biology, Coimbra University