Obesity review as a scientific concept

Abstract

Language according to Noam Chomsky, is an innate ability that can be used to communicate science. Analyzing the term obesity as a scientific concept will allow its correct epistemological approach to contribute to multidisciplinary scientific research that seeks to reduce this pandemic. Obesity is an excessive accumulation of body fat, in excess of physiological needs and adaptability, which can lead to adverse health effects, such as disability. It is considered a state in which adipose tissue represents more than 20% of total body weight in men and 25% in women. A BMI of 30 kg / m² or more is classified as obesity. From a genetic perspective, obesity is classified into three subdivisions according to the disorder and number of genes involved: monogenic, syndromic and polygenic. For the social sciences, it involves a sociocultural problem grafted onto a predisposition at the individual level. From an evolutionary perspective, the human body is not developed for constant exposure to a calorie-rich and sedentary environment. Understanding the current theoretical perspectives that conceptualize obesity, stipulated as a pathology in itself, as a risk factor for other non-communicable diseases and as an indirect etiology of disability, will allow scientific research to be developed with broader perspectives, through its design with mixed variables, categories and theories, which allow the formulation of hypotheses and explanations with a multidisciplinary approach, in accordance with the multifactorial etiology of obesity.