Definition of Obesogenic Environment

Marco Antonio Villanueva Bustamante
PhD in Psychology

The obesogenic environment is defined as the socially and structurally constructed space that affects the patterns of behavior and that favors the accumulation of body fat, causing the development of overweight or obesity.

At present, overweight and obesity have become a public health problem that concerns the world population. In this sense, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that worldwide close to one billion people live with one of these conditions, and approximately 2.7 million people die each year as a result of some complication derived from obesity. Among the possible complications that the prevalence of obesity can trigger are metabolic alterations that lead to diseases such as diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, arterial hypertension, cardiovascular accidents or liver fatty; mechanical disturbances such as hypoventilation, sleep apnea, cardiomyopathy and heart failure and finally psychosocial alterations such as depression, anxiety, behavioral alterations and discrimination.

Based on this information, it is a public health priority to carry out strategies to deal with it and reduce its prevalence. The traditional biomedical model has been the main frame of reference for the development of strategies, however, this has received criticism for being insufficient, biased or even stigmatizing; because it reduces obesity to an unhealthy lifestyle in which the individual has full responsibility. In this way, alternative proposals have emerged that seek to address the problem of obesity from a multifactorial perspective. As part of these alternatives, different variables involved in the development of obesity have emerged, such as weight stigma, emotional eating, and the obesogenic environment.

Characteristics and associated terms

Swinburn define it as the social and structural environment that is built and nourished and that affects the patterns of behavior that favor the accumulation of body fat and, consequently, the development of overweight and obesity. In other words, the obesogenic environment is the space where an individual resides and which, in combination with socialization norms and physical spaces, favor that the behavior is oriented towards one that makes possible the increase in weight and body fat, elements that allow classifying a person as overweight or obesity. In this sense, most of the research on the obesogenic environment tends to refer to structural aspects of the environment, such as the physical space, food availability or eating patterns, these elements can be closely related to the level socioeconomic; because on multiple occasions it has been described that people with a low socioeconomic level tend to have less access to resources that allow them to have a good quality of life. In this sense, the concept of food deserts has emerged, which in simple words is defined as those areas where it is difficult to access food healthy due to their high costs, while there is a marked ease of access to unhealthy foods, such as highly processed and low value foods nutritious.

As expected, food deserts are especially abundant in low-income areas. In addition to the above, these low-income areas are also characterized by hindering the development of physical activity. It has been described that these areas also lack open areas or spaces that allow the practice of sports or physical activities such as walking; however, these areas also lack areas where work can be done, so their residents have to make extensive trips to get to work in motorized transport (e.g. public or car) favoring the sedentary lifestyle On the contrary, people with high economic resources find it easier to access nutritious food, practice some physical activity and live close to their jobs, favoring active transport (e.g. using the bicycle or walk).

Finally, the role of sociocultural aspects such as norms, beliefs and values ​​associated with food is also highlighted. In this sense, Rozin affirms that culture is a determining factor in the consumption of certain foods (e.g., some cultures prefer salty foods over sweet foods, while others consume spicy or highly spiced foods to a greater degree than others); they also point out that food is central elements in some cultural practices. In this way we could think of some sayings such as "sorrows with bread are more enjoyable" that would favor practices such as emotional eating, which are associated with the consumption of unhealthy foods in excess. However, for the Latino culture, food is a central element; Let's think that in all meetings there should be food that goes beyond snacks or drinks.

As a conclusion, it could be said that the obesogenic environment is a central element for the development of public policies and intervention strategies to deal with obesity, since this context is largely responsible for the prevalence of this condition.