[ad_1]
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 41 million children under the age of 5 are overweight or obese, a condition that is likely to lead to adult obesity and the development of diabetes, hypertension or other cardiovascular diseases.
Cardiovascular disease (ischemic heart disease and stroke) was the leading cause of death worldwide in 2019. According to the World Health Organization, 9 million people died from ischemic heart disease and 6 million from stroke.
In our country, according to official data from the Ministry of Health (Minsal), probably due to underreporting, the prevalence of overweight among children under 5 years of age is 6%, and that among children under 7 years of age is 23%. Up to 9 years of age are overweight or obese. These alarming epidemiological figures are even more severe among the Salvadoran population aged 20, where we find almost 40% overweight and 27% obesity. That is, 7 out of 10 20-year-olds in our country are overweight or obese. I am not surprised that diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and hypertensive diseases are among the ten most common causes of death in our country. This is a real public health problem, of epidemic proportions, for which our authorities have not proposed a solution in the short or long term, but for which there is already a lot of evidence in the medical literature.
Why would I associate overweight and obesity with the Olympics? The Olympics are associated with sports and exercise, which are the main weapons of our health workers in the fight against this terrible epidemic, along with proper nutrition. Am I contradicting myself then?
Barry Popkin, founder and co-director of the World Food Research Program at the University of North Carolina, points out that sugary drinks are closely linked to a surge in global health harms, including 13 types of cancer. “Sugar is the rogue ingredient,” he insists. “It’s dietary tobacco.” Sugary drink consumption leads to increased rates of diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease, resulting in 3 to 6 million disability-adjusted life years and 75,700 deaths in 2021.
Coca-Cola, one of the most harmful sugary drinks to global public health, recently posted on its website: The Coca-Cola Company is the oldest partner of the Olympic Movement, having supported every Olympic Games since 1928. – For more than two decades, Coke has been a proud partner of the Olympic Torch Relay and a founding member of the Olympic Partners (TOP) program. Its partnership extends until at least 2032, extending the company’s historic relationship with the Olympic Movement to 104 years.
Don Francisco de Quevedo once said that a powerful gentleman is the gift of money. Mother, I humble myself for the gold medal, he is my love, my beloved… This is how the International Olympic Committee (IOC) seems to express itself. He will receive 3 billion dollars from Coca-Cola, which allows the company to carry out brutal marketing with the IOC during the Olympic Games from 2021 to 2032. A powerful gentleman is the gift of money.
Speaking at the 77th World Health Organization World Health Assembly in Geneva, IOC President Thomas Bach stressed that “sport is an ‘excellent preventive tool’” for obesity, cardiovascular susceptibility and other non-communicable diseases. In the above speech, he could not help but ignore the partnership of the institution he presides over with the world’s leading company in the sale of sugary drinks, which sells an average of 1.9 billion servings of sugary drinks every day. It’s interesting how our values work. Oscar Wilde said, “We all have a price.” Nature is corruptible and is always sold to the highest bidder. Their vision and logic is survival at all costs. The strongest law, although currently the wisest law, the law of evolution. But the IOC must be reminded: No one can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). You cannot serve God and money.
[ad_2]
Source link
