Around 62 Percent of Bulgarians are Overweight

Stress, frustration, strain. Who hasn't reached out for the antidote that is closest at hand - junk food that is as tasty as it is harmful to our health. Yet this fleeting sense of happiness causes more problems than you can see in the mirror.

Around 62 percent of Bulgarians are overweight. The number of people in the country who are overweight has trebled in the past 40 years. These data were made public by endocrinologist Prof. Zdravko Kamenov on the occasion of World Obesity Day, 4 March. With regard to this tendency Bulgaria is running ahead of European and world obesity tendencies, Prof. Zdravko Kamenov says. In these negative rankings Bulgaria is 5th in Europe after Czechia, Greece, Malta and Great Britain. The main causes for this are a high-calorie diet and a low level of physical activity. But overindulgence in food often reveals the existence of emotional or psychological problems.

People who are depressed usually put on weight because they eat more and also because of what they eat, most of all sugar which makes them feel a bit better, says Prof. Zdravko Kamenov, head of the clinic of endocrinology and metabolic disorders at Alexandrovska Hospital. On the other hand with the stigma obesity brings, people who are overweight get depressed more often. So, it goes both ways with each of the two problems - obesity and depression - feeding the other. That is why we have to treat both. Ultimately, losing weight will lead to better self-confidence and more optimism which will, in turn, improve the psychological condition.

Obesity has been considered a disease since 1948 because it disrupts the bodily functions, causing symptoms and affecting different organs and systems adversely. People with excessive weight are susceptible to 200 more...