According to WHO, 39% of the world’s adult population is obese. The country with the most obesity is Nauru, a small island in the Pacific Ocean 4,000 kilometers southwest of Australia, where money from the bird droppings trade and selling millions of tons of them for agriculture is used to feed its lazy population. Returned to the population, it changed itself. With changing eating habits, increased alcohol consumption and being a healthy island, it became a symbol of obesity. And with it, general health deteriorated: cases of diabetes skyrocketed, heart problems were on the rise and general mental status suffered. No one wanted to work with such easy wealth and the island became a case study of what can happen when obesity runs rampant.
According to the World Health Organisation, obesity and its consequences are one of the leading causes of death. At least 2.8 million adults die each year due to being overweight or obese. Timor, Japan and Nepal have the lowest rates of obesity at around 3%.
Although there are genetic, environmental, social, metabolic and hormonal influences, the culprit behind obesity is excessive consumption of calories and processed foods. The United States is one of the countries that leads the world in obesity rates. One of our students, who returned to India after spending 12 years in the United States, was unrecognizable to us, having changed so much that he had gone from a lean figure to a round figure. Excess alcohol was the reason for this decline. The last time he arrived in Mumbai, he spent 60,000 rupees (about €665) on alcohol for his return party in one night!
What else did our alumnus do wrong? Excessive consumption of sugary drinks, refined cereals, chips, red meat, salami, ham, bacon, sausage… all as an accompaniment to drinks.
What advice does yoga give us to reduce obesity?
20 minutes daily of stretching, compression and twisting asanas
Pranayama, especially Yogendra Pranayama 5, which dissolves fat
– desire to relax, reduce stress and eat
– walk
Through these and other practices, my weight increased from 84 kg to only 62 kg in a matter of years.
