“To overeat is as great as the evil to starve” – Discuss.
Eating is a matter of habit and upbringing. What one eats and how one eats depend on various circumstances. One may overeat when there is variety and abundance to go through as in a buffet dinner where people tend to overeat.
The evils of overeating are many. The organs arc overtaxed. The stomach and the other digestive organs have to function beyond their capacity to help in digestion. As the digestive system is overtaxed, the needed energy does not reach the brains and so the person who always overeats is like a python. The efficiency will be low and slow and a person is not able to sustain long hours of concentration. Obesity may be the result which again tells on the efficiency of the limbs and their movements. An obese person is again uncouth and ugly and becomes a laughing stock in public. Obesity leads to diseases like heart failure. Then take a look at the cost of overeating. Because one overeats his bill of fare will be high. Again by overeating one deprives another of his legitimate food. This is an important factor to be remembered by certain people who because of affluence do overeat. The excess food may conveniently be shared with those unfortunate ones who are not having enough food. Humanitarian societies help in the distribution of food to the needy.
Overeating is only a matter of habit. The parents have got a duty in teaching children to form good eating habits. They should not be given beyond their need. We have got a lesson to learn from animals which do not overeat and hence they keep up their energy and efficiency. We should not become a slave to our taste because our systems do not require so much of food.
If overeating is an evil, starving is equally bad because the organs don’t get the necessary food for their efficiency. So we find people who are starved or semi starved not as efficient as the well-fed people. This is economically bad for a nation, because starved people will get fatigued very soon and the quantum of work which they turn out will be less and so detrimental to the economy of the country.
Starved people suffer from anaemia, malnutrition and diseases connected with malnutrition. Semi-starved people continue to be a feature even today in certain countries where women and children suffer from malnutrition. They cannot resist diseases as the body’s natural resistance becomes poor. So it is a drain on the nation’s exchequer which has to meet a heavy bill in the form of hospitals. Death due to starvation has not been unknown. During famine millions of people have been wiped out but now with the advance of science and a better transport system, death by starvation is reduced.
Starvation tells on the growth of children. Where children are starved, infantile mortality is very high. Starvation during pregnancy and post natal period affects both the mother and the child.
While a person should avoid overeating, there must not be any ghost of a chance for starvation either. Providing enough food for people is every government’s concern and all its economic machinery must be geared to that end. Dietary education is a must if people must be saved from overeating.
