By Park Moo-jong
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What comes to mind first are our "ambitious" New Year resolutions we made 10 months ago about our health problems.
On top of the list of the usual resolutions are quitting smoking, losing weight and cutting down on drinking, among others.
Some are jubilant over having kicked the habit of lighting up or having reduced drinking. But really many of us are used to feeling distressed over the useless effort of losing weight, and two months later we will certainly make another promise to ourselves to lose weight.
Indeed, losing weight appears to be one of the most difficult tasks for people today, including me, as a recent health survey has found that about half of South Korean men are considered overweight.
In particular, a warning light was lit on the health of men in their 30s and 40s, who should become the main figures of the nation to make this society a better place to live in.
According to the "2018 National Health and Nutrition Survey" announced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare last week, 51.4 percent of South Korean men in their 30s were overweight, a 4.7 percent rise from 46.7 percent a year earlier; and 47.5 percent of men in their 40s were obese, up from 44.7 percent in 2017.
This is the first time since the survey began in 1998 that the obesity rate has exceeded 50 percent. These rates rival those of North America where a third of all men and women are overweight. In short, Korean men are getting obese amid a warning from the Korean Society for the Study of Obesity that the obesity prevalence will skyrocket to 62 percent in 2030.
Various worldwide research projects and surveys testify to the seriousness of being obese. People who are overweight at the age of 40 are likely to die at least three years sooner than those who are not.
The reason is quite simple. Everybody knows why. It's common sense: gluttony and no workouts are the culprits for obesity.
To be more specific, the rise in obesity is attributed to nutritional imbalances caused by the habit of eating high-calorie delivery food alone, dubbed "honbap," and preferring computer games to working out.
Those in their 30s eat more and move less. They are accustomed or addicted to high-calorie fast food like hamburgers or pizzas. The survey showed that the fat intake of a man in his 30s was 67.9 grams a day, an increase of 17.4 grams from the survey in 1998.
Such an eating habit combines with late marriage, the flourishing trend of eating alone and enjoying online games so as to increase the obesity rate. Adding insult to injury is the expanding trend of shopping online without going out to markets or stores. Naturally, we walk less.
Being overweight or obese is the undisputed reward of gluttony, which Pope Gregory the Great in the late 6th century put on the top of the list of the "Seven Sins," followed by lust, greed, anger, sadness, sloth and pride (also known as vanity).
What makes the situation more serious is the rise of childhood obesity. In 2017, the rate of teenagers marked 26 percent, higher than the average rate of 25.6 percent among OECD member countries.
The social and economic cost of obesity is also exorbitant, accounting for nearly 10 percent of the people's total medical expenses, not to mention the higher expenses for living.
Ironically, we know how to lose weight and to "get slim." Yet, we also know how difficult it is.
In 2013, the American Medical Association recognized obesity as a complex, chronic disease that required medical attention as the result of developments over the past three decades, declaring a war against obesity.
However, our government has neglected coping with obesity, while paying much more attention to no-smoking campaigns and the management of dementia. It is needless to say that the health authorities have to come up with more aggressive programs to help win the "fight against flesh."
Obesity seriously threatens the people's health. Everybody agrees that health is the most important thing in his or her life: Losing money is losing one thing; losing friends is losing something; losing health is losing everything.
No pain, no gain. Let's work out. Let's get physical (while listening to Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" on YouTube).
Park Moo-jong (emjei29@gmail.com) is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974.
