‘Obesity turning into disease in Pakistan’
By Our Correspondent KARACHI: Delivering a solo lecture at the Centre of Excellence, Hamdard University (HU), a senior professor of medicine from a private university reminded the audience that obesity was gaining the status of a disease in Pakistan, as the number of adults living with it has doubled in the period since 1990. Prof Dr Karim Kammeruddin of Baqai University during a talk titled “Obesity Dialogue” stated that 50 per cent of the country’s adult population happen to be obese, which could be attributed to wanting to eat to obtain taste and pleasure instead of gaining nutrition and energy. Dr Kammeruddin said South Asian people are generally vulnerable to obesity, particularly in urban population as they are getting addicted to fast foods such as burgers and cold drinks. “Burgers and carbonated drinks were also available, say, 20 years ago, but they used to be consumed in smaller portions back then,” he said. He noted that eating to survive is fine, but Hedonic eati...