Another Iraqi casualty of war: Their waistlines
Sectarian violence has kept many people indoors for years, and now they're fighting the battle of the bulge.
BAGHDAD — In a land where just staying alive is a challenge, Haider Kareem Said's problem might seem trivial. He's overweight.
But that isn't a mere annoyance or something Said can fix with diet and exercise -- he's 5-foot-4 and weighs 495 pounds. So last month, Said had a band surgically strapped around his stomach, an operation relatively new to Iraq that is proving to be a godsend for people facing an unusual consequence of the war: obesity.
For most of the last five years, sectarian violence has drastically altered Iraqis' lifestyles. Most retreated to the safety of their homes and became increasingly sedentary, rarely venturing out of their neighborhoods. To go out was to risk being kidnapped, killed by a bomb or caught up in the other violence plaguing Iraq. Curfews hindered people who tried to remain active.
Said, 25, had a photographic supply shop but closed it for three years because of security concerns.
"I stayed home and couldn't do anything. All I did was play PlayStation and eat," Said said while awaiting his surgery in Baghdad's St. Raphael Hospital.
The ankle-length brown gown he wore could not hide his heft. Fat rolled around his ankles, and his rounded feet barely fit into his slip-on sandals. His face, soft and absent of contours and lines, made him appear younger than his years. "When I worked, my weight was a lot less, but those three years really had an impact," Said said, estimating his weight gain in that time at about 200 pounds.
Statistics on obesity in Iraq are difficult to come by, but a World Health Organization survey in 2006 found that 26% of men and 38% of women ages 25 to 65 were obese, with a body mass index of 30 or higher. Though no direct comparisons are available, roughly 33% of American men and 35% of American women were considered obese in a 2005-06 study done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.
Said's BMI is 83, the highest ever seen by Dr. Ramiz S. Mukhtar, the only surgeon in Iraq who performs gastric band surgery.
Mukhtar would not discuss the reason for Iraqis' growing weight problem beyond saying that they eat too much unhealthful food and don't move around enough.
But Said's uncle, Jabar Said, agreed that the war had made many Iraqis fatter, himself included.
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