Questions 46-52: Read the passage carefully.
Obesity was traditionally defined as an increase in body weight that was greater than 20 percent of an individual’s ideal body weight - the weight associated with the lowest risk of death, as determined by certain factors, such as age, height, and gender. Based on these factors, overweight could then be defined as a 15–20 percent increase over ideal body weight. However, today the definitions of overweight and obesity are based primarily on measures of height and weight - not morbidity. These measures are used to calculate a number known as body mass index (BMI). This number, which is central to determining whether an individual is clinically defined as obese, parallels fatness but is not a direct measure of body fat. Interpretation of BMI numbers is based on weight status groupings, such as underweight, healthy weight, overweight, and obese, that are adjusted for age and sex. For all adults over 20, BMI numbers correlate to the same weight status designations; for example, a BMI between 25.0 and 29.9 equates with overweight and 30.0 and above with obesity. Morbid obesity (also known as extreme, or severe, obesity) is defined as a BMI of 40.0 or higher.
Obesity may be undesirable from an aesthetic sense, especially in parts of the world where slimness is the popular preference, but it is also a serious medical problem. Generally, obese persons have a shorter life expectancy; they suffer earlier, more often, and more severely from a large number of diseases than do their normal-weight counterparts. For example, people who are obese are also frequently affected by diabetes; in fact, worldwide, roughly 90 percent of type II diabetes cases are caused by excess weight. Obesity is also a significant cause of cancer; by 2018, overweight and obesity were responsible for about 1 in every 25 cancers diagnosed worldwide. In the United States, researchers found that the incidence of obesity-related cancer was increasing among relatively young adults aged 25 to 49.
The association between obesity and the deterioration of cardiovascular health, which manifests in conditions such as diabetes and hypertension (abnormally high blood pressure), places obese persons at risk for accelerated cognitive decline as they age. Investigations of brain size in persons with long-term obesity revealed that increased body fat is associated with the atrophy (wasting away) of brain tissue, particularly in the temporal and frontal lobes of the brain. In fact, both overweight and obesity, and thus a BMI of 25 or higher, are associated with reductions in brain size, which increases the risk of dementia, the most common form of which is Alzheimer disease.
Obese women are often affected by infertility, taking longer to conceive than normal-weight women, and obese women who become pregnant are at an increased risk of miscarriage. Men who are obese are also at increased risk of fertility problems, since excess body fat is associated with decreased testosterone levels. In general, relative to normal-weight individuals, obese individuals are more likely to die prematurely of degenerative diseases of the heart, arteries, and kidneys, and they have an increased risk of developing cancer. Obese individuals also have an increased risk of death from accidents and constitute poor surgical risks. Mental health is affected; behavioral consequences of an obese appearance, ranging from shyness and withdrawal to overly bold self-assertion, may be rooted in neuroses and psychoses.
(https://www.britannica.com/science/obesity)
Choose an option (A, B, C, or D) that best answers each question.