Saturday, December 5, 2009

7. "The economic illness"


Obesity, is an illness, which spreads in recent years faster than before. Surveys also tell that, but we can see it too, if we look around a bit more carefully. In my childhood, there were always some friends to play around my house and we were never getting bored. But now, when I look from the window, I never see kids playing like we did years ago, I just see them in shopping malls playing with their ataris or asking their moms to buy one more pc game. I can see it also in my relatives. My cousins' mom never allow them to go to the park without herself because of the "unsafe" environment. So they just come home and watch tv, because they have nothing to do with their nanny, and they both put on weight fastly. Maybe the mothers are right because of the increased crime rate but obesity is much more risky than playing outside.

Especially the children are more likely to have this illness because watching television and playing pc games are generally the main activities of their lifes. Surveys tell that people eat extra meals during watching tv and children, who watch television more than 4 hours/a day are more likely to have obesity comparing to children, who watch less. These illness can lead to more serious health problems but ironically, there are sectors which gain advantage from the obeses.

This is mentioned in an article I read. A research made in Holland tells that the obeses and people who smoke live shorter than healthy people and this makes government save $50.000 per person, and the explanation is that the treatments of the illnesses such as obesity and cancer are much more cheaper than the illnesses like alzheimer. I think it is very inappropriate to make estimations about people's lifes, even if the mentioned people do not think about their lifes so much.

1 comment:

  1. It is indeed sad. I played outdoors so often as a child, and my sister and I invented our own imaginary world. When you mentioned your cousins, I couldn't help thinking that if they have a nanny, why can't she take them to the park for some exercise? I don't understand why people make so many excuses not to allow their children to go outside. Even Istanbul, with a population of 15+ million, is hugely safer than even small American towns and cities. Most likely, people's fear has been increased by the ton of negative media reports. But even so, children need plenty of fresh air and exercise.

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