CHAPTER II:

Review of Related Literature and Studies

This chapter shows relevant studies and literature connected to the

researcher’s topic; obesity and malnutrition. This was conducted to help the

researchers build the frame of the research. The main goal is to gain more

knowledge to serve as one of the basis of the research’s conclusion and

recommendation.

LOCAL LITERATURE

OBESITY

Obesity means that the fat being intake is more than enough that causes an

imbalance condition within the body. It is a condition where it can be measured in

terms of BMI or body mass index. What people doesn’t know is, obesity can also

be a form of malnutrition. The reason for this is, the nutrition intake does not

satisfy the enough nutrition a body needs.

Obesity varies on ages as well, because there’s a lot of factors that we must

consider in order to identify if someone is obese or just an overweight. Many

believe that children are more prone to being obese because of what we called

metabolism; it means how fast or slow the food being intake will be processed to

waste. Measuring obesity comes from different ages because it must consider

the weight and height before you know the result of your BMI. Childhood or even

teenagers are the ones that often indulged because of their choice of food.
According to a research, genes is one of the reason why teenagers more likely

eats food that are sweet and salty.

Obesity, indeed, can be alarming. It can be a serious problem in one country.

1
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the

Philippines and India are among the developing countries with high levels of

obesity and under-nutrition. (2015) . 2The rate of obese people are increasing

fast. In 2014, more than 1.9 billion adults, 18 years and older, were overweight.

Of these over 600 million, about 13% of the world’s adult population (11% of men

and 15% of women) were [Link] Filipino adults, the current prevalence of

NCD risk factors are: overweight and obesity (27%); hypertension (25%); high

blood sugar (5%); and high total cholesterol level (10%). This simply means that

obesity can also be a cause for other health diseases. According to some

studies, obese people have a 50% to 100% increased risk of dying prematurely.

It is because they are more exposed in having high risk with their health.

MALNUTRITION

A medical dictionary by Farlex defines malnutrition as the condition that

develops when the body does not get the right amount of the vitamins, minerals,

and other nutrients it needs to maintain healthy tissues and organ

[Link] can be malnourished whether in a short period of time or a

long one, it can also be categorized either mild or severe. This can also affect

one’s physical body, specially, the mind that can lead to death. Malnutrition, just

like obesity, is a serious problem too.

1
[Link]
2
[Link]
 Malnutrition is also a problem here in the Philippines. According to Rappler,

Philippines ranked 51st out of 117 countries [Link] 4 million (31.8%) of

the preschool population were found to be underweight-for-age, 3 million (19.8%)

adolescents and 5 million (13.2%) adults, including older persons were found to

be underweight and chronically energy deficient, respectively.

People often mistaken malnutrition as in line with being underweight but

according to medical experts, malnutrition can also cause obesity.

“The mistake is to think that if you eat an abundance of

calories, your diet automatically delivers all the nutrients your body
needs. But the opposite is true. The more processed food you eat,
the more vitamins you need.” (Hyman, MD)

We often mistaken that eating a lot of calories can be proportion on getting

the right amount of nutrients we needed, but the truth is that the more calories

we’ve gain, the more vitamins we must intake. Having enough nutrition doesn't

mean you focus on one nutrition only, you need to balance everything. This

wants to show that having a balanced diet should be implemented.

CAUSE AND EFFECT

Obesity and malnutrition has its own causes and effect to our human body.

Obesity can be caused by our genes but most importantly, the main cause of

obesity is through the food we intake. We usually eat foods that are sweet and

salty because we find comfort on it.

"There is, in fact, a relationship between stress and obesity...

Para silang mag-asawa,"(Tolentino, 2014)
 Stress leads us to eating a lot of foods. A lot believes that it would be an

escape from our emotional issues but while doing that, people neglects their

health and the nutrition the body asks for. Yes, they are filling their emotional

needs but not their health and physical needs.

Technology can also be a cause of obesity. With the high technology and

new inventions, people indulges and neglects their health condition

“Experts now recognize Internet addiction, in which individuals

spend an excessive amount of time online, as an evolving medical
condition. In the age of the internet, Twitter, and Facebook, obesity
will continue to rise due to the lack of physical activity with increase
of unhealthy eating patterns—high intake of French fries, burgers,
pizza, sweetened beverages, junk foods. Smoking with obesity is a
deadly combination: tobacco use among children aged 13-15 years
is very common in the Philippines (28% in boys and 17% in
girls)“(WHO, 2009)

The influence we see through social media can also be a cause of obesity.

We love to eat pizzas, fries, burgers and other foods with high calories. In line to

that, through new inventions, people are being indulged with processed foods.

People think that it would be easy to eat instant foods but the sad reality is their

health is being at risk.

The researchers found out that exercising can also be a cause of obesity.

Without noticing, the food being eaten increases.

“First, people often reward themselves for their exercise with

an indulgent treat. Sometimes we end up consuming more as a
reward than the exercise burned in the first place. As a result,
calorie intake and exercise often increase together, even with the
 best intentions. Second, people persistently overestimate the
amount of calories burned during exercise and underestimate
calories in the food they eat.” (McFerran Ph.D., 2013)

People often think that having a physical activity is enough in order to make

their body in proper term, but what they didn’t notice is that, the food being intake

should still be monitored. Their increase in emotions makes them do things

without thinking first, also what can be the reason is that; the type of food being

eaten.

The researchers concluded that the more exercises people executes, the

more food they are eating. It is a fact that the main cause of obesity is through

what we eat. The rise of the street foods is considered to be one of the causes of

obesity and malnutrition in the Philippines.

LOCAL STUDIES

According to the study of Nonato [Link]. (2016), street foods are often seen

as possessing nutritional components associated with an unhealthy diet. Street

foods cannot supply enough nutrition that the body needs causing the body to be

malnourished.

Malnutrition brings a lot of diseases to the human body and puts our health

at high risk. High blood pressure, diabetes, and heart diseases are the major

effects of obesity to our body. Indeed, this is very alarming. Listed above are the

causes of obesity. There are also studies and sayings that explain why a person
reaches the obesity level. To sum it up, the major cause of obesity is the food we

eat. People indulges more on their desired food, particularly, processed foods,

fast foods and street foods. These foods don’t sustain enough nutrition for our

body. Yes it fills our stomach but not our health. The rise of technology adds on

the reason for someone to be malnourished or obese. The influence they get on

social media and the new inventions for processed foods worsen the health

situation of one person.

Prevention is better than cure, a famous line that will never go out of style.

The researchers believed that people should be prevented on eating too much

food with high cholesterol and calories. The only way the researchers foresee is

to make an innovative food that can give the people the same satisfaction they

are receiving every time they eat street foods, processed foods and fast foods,

but this time, the food will give nutrition and benefit to the customer.

FOREIGN LITERATURE

Various strategies have been employed to control obesity. These include

dietary advice, behavior therapy and pharmacological intervention. The caloric

intake is proposed to be the one that should be controlled and it is important in

predicting the weight gained by the individual. Typically, calories can be loss due

to the used energy of the body but there is a significant difference of calories

intake in between men and women. However, it remains a big problem to

maintain the successful diet. The behavior and intention of an individual creates

a tendency on how the adult will manage the diet or the therapy for obesity .

OBESITY AS SOCIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEM

Obesity isn’t just a simple physical and health problem, according to what

the researchers gathered, obesity can also be psychological and sociological

problem. Psychological in terms of getting pressured because of gaining weight.

Psychological issues can not only reflect on developing obesity, it can also be

seen in having a struggles on how to lose weight.

“The etiological basis of eating disorders and obesity usually lies in

some combination of psychosocial, environmental, and genetic or
biological attributes. Individuals who suffer from psychological
disorders (e.g. depression, anxiety, and eating disorders) may have
more difficulty controlling their consumption of food, exercising an
adequate amount, and maintaining a healthy weight.”(Collins, M.A.,
M.S&Bentz,Ph.D. 2009).

People who often encounter stress and having issues or problems are the

ones who are more likely to be obese because they can’t control their intake of

food. Emotional stress can be a huge factor for someone to be obese. Jennifer R

Scott defines stress eating as the consumption of food responding to your

feelings even when you are not hungry. This only means that the intake of the

food will increase, specially, the researchers believes that people find comfort

food in sweets and salty.

“This is an age of modern living, superior technology, luxurious

day-to-day, exaggerated money and last but not the least trending
obesity. Growing number of cases of obesity has made it into a
 fully grown social problem. Child obesity is a much talked about
topic in today’s era. What could be the cause of this? The
modernization of our living has took us to the top of the ladder on
one side and it drenches us in a hollow pit called obesity.” (Energy
Today Magazine)

This means that obesity can also be considered as a sociological problem

because of our modern way of living this days. Technologies can also affect

obesity because processed foods is the in demand foods in our newly

generation. This was considered as a sociological problem because it is not just

a simple problem of an individual being, but can be categorized as a problem of

the whole society itself.

There are a lot of factors that affects the health of one person causing

him to be malnourished, but with all those reasons, the food we are eating plays

the biggest part on our health. One must be very wise in choosing but the

problem is, people nowadays tend to choose food they are attracted to, this is the

very reason why the researchers end up on making an innovative food that will

also capture their eyes and attract them just like how they are being attracted to

fast foods and junk foods, the only difference is, the food we are offering are

healthier.

FOREIGN STUDIES

According to Balaban and Silva (2004), childhood obesity is a cause for poor

health in childhood, the development of obesity in adults and subsequent

obesity-related health problems in adulthood. Balance between energy intake

and expenditure in the context of individual’s environment, behavior, and genes

tend to be the cause of obesity and malnutrition.

Giugliano and Cameiro (2004) said that patterns of eating may also

contribute to obesity. Truly, eating habits of a person affect his health. The food

he eats plays a huge part whether he will be an obese or not. However, there is a

study from Ruxton et. al (1996) that there is no significant difference between

those classified as ‘high’ and ‘low’ snackers. This study was supported by the

research of Gibson (1996) which state that there is no absolute association

between snacking and obesity. Hampl [Link]. (2003) suggested that the type of

food consumed should be the focus, not the snacks eaten per second,

furthermore, St Onge et. al. (2003), also suggested that as children’s BMI has

increased, so has their consumption of fast foods and soft drinks. Fox (2004)

identifies that children and young people are increasingly exposed to

environmental stimuli that promote poor dietary habits and decreased energy

expenditure.

Canadian Pediatric society found out that television shows can also be a

factor to cause obesity. They have found out that most advertisements on

television commercials are for fast foods, candy, and pre-sweetened cereals,

only 4% of those commercials shows health foods. (Media Awareness Network,

2004).This was the reason why almost one in four Canadian children, between

ages of 7 and 12 are obese. Television viewing encourages a child to eat junk

foods and fast foods. Sadly, these foods are not healthy, just delicious but not

nutritious.