ABSTRACT
The worldwide incidence of obesity has been rapidly increasing in the last two decades. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, obesity has been classied as a growing epidemic, and if immediate action is not taken, millions will suffer from an array of serious weight-related disorders. Obesity counts as a major health problem and a common chronic disease, affecting more than one in four of all Americans, including children, and its incidence has been steadily increasing in the last two decades. In health surveys conducted in the United States in 2005, 24.2% of men and 23.5% of women or over one-fth of the respondents were classied as obese (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2005). Similarly, in the United Kingdom, a survey conducted in 2009 found that more than a quarter of adults were obese (26 percent of both sexes). In total, 68 percent of men and 58 percent of women were overweight or obese in the year (Health Survey of England 2009). According to German government statistics report, two-thirds of all German men between the ages of 18 and 80 are overweight; almost half of all women have weight problems, and more than 1 million of their youth show symptoms of eating disorders (https://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Vreel_Mistee). Several studies have shown that obesity is associated with an increase in mortality rates. Those persons who suffer from obesity have a 10%–50% increased risk of death from natural causes compared to those of normal healthyweight individuals. This increased risk of death is due to the obesity-induced cardiovascular diseases, which accounts for about 112,000 deaths per year in the U.S. population, compared with healthy-weight individuals (https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/index.html).
