Will Exercise Reduce Obesity?

Obesity and overweight are commonly seen now. Truly speaking I don’t see many morbidly obese people often, but I can say that every other person I meet may be a bit overweight.  In fact, four years ago I did a small study in our hometown measuring many people’s BMI. Most of them were looking average built, but were overweight.

When more was asked about their dietary habits, I noticed that they did not overeat. Their staple food was rice. For breakfast there was idly, dosa, upma etc. Lunch included two or three big spoons of rice, vegetable curry and fish curry.

Plain Dosa

Their diet was not overwhelmingly energy rich or fat rich. In addition to that because of the religious disciplines, most of them observed moderation in diet.

Idly

Then what could be the reason for overweight?

Overweight was mainly because of lack of physical activity. They did minimum work. Their ancesotrs had to work in the field, produce paddy, and make rice out of the paddy by boiling it at home and even husking the paddy at home. In olden days, most of the vegetables were cultivated in their own courtyard.

But now the situation has changed. Paddy fields are disappearing. They are land filled and new houses are built. Rice is bought from the market. So no effort is put in boiling the paddy and husking it. Generally people had less physical activity with the use of machines like mixer grinder, washing machines, dish washer etc.

So I went back and suggested each one of them to increase their physical activities. People have large squares of land and it was suggested to engage in more of gardening which might help them to reduce weight