Centro para el manejo integral de la obesidad.

Abstract

It is given by the great problem that arises worldwide, thanks to obesity, because according to WHO this pathology is growing in a big way, thus decreasing the quality of life of those who suffer from it, because this is a springboard for these "obese" people to improve their habits, their health, their self-esteem, and therefore their quality of life, it is also believed that in developing countries there are about 35 million overweight children, while in developed countries, 8 million. Figures from the National Survey of the Nutritional Situation in Colombia 2010 (ENSIN) revealed that "one in six children is overweight or obese, especially in urban areas; this relationship increases proportionally to the Sisbén level and the educational level of the mother (9.4 percent are mothers with no education while 26.8 percent have higher education)". Overweight and obesity are no longer problems exclusive to developed countries. It is now also a growing problem in poor and middle-income countries, as well as in the poor population of high-income countries (WHO, 2011). Unlike developed countries, where the increase in obesity has been gradual, it is considered that in developing countries the change occurred in a shorter time (Popkin, 2004). In Colombia, as in other middle-income Latin American countries, nearly half of the population is obese or overweight, a problem that is on the rise and against which a simultaneous fight has been initiated with that against malnutrition. According to reports from the recent Surveys on the Nutritional Situation in Colombia (ENSIN), in just five years (between 2005 and 2010), overweight among the adult population in Colombia rose from 45.9% to 51.2% (an increase of 5.3 pp).