Name: Z.

Milena León Neva

READING 1: Obesity: An Urgent Global Epidemic and Local Challenge.

1. Identify the topic sentences in each paragraph. 7 paragraphs.

Since 1980, the number of overweight and obese people in the world has more than doubled,
going from about 850 million people to over 2 billion of the 7 billion people on planet Earth. This
growing epidemic, with potential health implications for more than one in three adults worldwide,
caused 3.4 million deaths in 2010 alone, according to a report published last month in the world’s
foremost medical journal, The Lancet.

Excess body weight is not just a problem in high-income countries like the United States, Australia
and the United Kingdom. Indeed, much of the burden is now in low- and middle-income countries,
with rising rates in China and India.

Obesity and the connected risks of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and some cancers
are potentially major drivers of future healthcare costs internationally. The obesity epidemic also
affects worker productivity and could constrain future economic development if not effectively
addressed.

We know that overweight and obesity arise from energy imbalance — too much food energy
intake and too little energy expenditure through exercise. Many people now eat more energy-
dense foods than in the past. At the same time, many people are also becoming very sedentary
because of reliance on automobiles for transport, the rise of office-based work, and the use of
television and computer screens for recreation. Indeed, public health researchers have coined the
term ‘obesogenic environments’ to describe the cities and towns, in which we now live, learn,
work and play.

For thousands of generations, our ancestors were hunter-gatherers. It was only about 10,000
years ago that humans began to take up farming as a way of life. From an evolutionary perspective,
the human body is well suited to the hunter-gatherer way of life — procuring plants and animals
from the wild, by gathering and hunting — because it provides a natural diet and plenty of
exercise. The hunter-gatherer diet was very different from many of the foods for sale in today’s
supermarkets, which include soft drinks, chocolates and potato crisps.

To counter this epidemic of overweight and obesity, perhaps we should strive to be ‘urban’
hunter-gatherers. What would that be like? Urban hunter-gatherers would get plenty of exercise
in daily life — walking to school, up and down stairs in buildings, to the shops, and to work. Bursts
of intense physical activity — ‘hunting’ — would occur when people ran fast (e.g., running late for
the bus or train) or when they cycled at speed. An urban hunter-gatherer could gather healthy
food at local shops and markets, or from a community or street garden.

While this may seem like an unusual vision for the future of our cities, it could provide valuable
insights for the design of active and healthy cities. The Lancet report concludes that no country
has yet been successful in tackling the obesity epidemic. Of course, that is not a reason to stop
trying. One positive step would be for urban planners and public health workers to come together
and advocate for fresh approaches to urban design and development that enable healthy ways of
living. There is an urgent need to understand and tackle the growing problem of an overweight
population and the obesity epidemic in creative ways.

2. Express your Opinion about OBESITY. Please WRITE your OWN thoughts, argue your ideas,
use punctuation, spelling and connectors. 100 words.

According to Neswpaper “El tiempo” the statistics suggests that obesity has raised in Colombia.
More than 80% of Colombians suffer this disease and 24% of this amount, are kids. Obesity is a
huge issue and requires immediately attention. First, Colombian State must create programs in
order to promote a healthy diet and physical exercise. On the other hand, each Colombian has to
become aware of the risks that this illness implies.
From the home, adults must take actions to prevent obesity and eliminate bad habits, such as,
physical inactivity and junk food intake. This is a problem for all of us, because the consequences
represent a high economic costs for public finances and a public health problem.
3. Use a graphic organizer to state the main idea and secondary ideas of the text.