Africa, North

There are references to gluttony in several surviving papyri from Ancient Egypt, and medical historians who are interested in Egyptology have tried to work out diagnoses for the deaths of the various Pharaohs of the XVIIIth dynasty. This has allowed them to dismiss the idea that the Pharaoh Akhenaton (d. 1334/1336 bce) suffered from Florisch's syndrome, which is usually accompanied by becoming overweight, although the Queen of Punt (15th century b.c.e.), shown on a relief in the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, was clearly suffering from obesity. The Egyptian king, Ptolemy VIII “Physcon” (182–116 b.c.e.), became well known for his obesity.

With a much larger wealthy urban elite than the other countries in North Africa, Egypt has had more of a problem with obesity than the rest of the area. In modern times, several important Egyptians have certainly suffered from obesity, perhaps the most well known being the famous Egyptian general Ibrahim Pasha (1789–1848) and the last king of Egypt, Farouk I (1920–65) who was deposed in 1952. In exile, Farouk became steadily more obese and weighed 300 pounds (136 kg) when he died on March 3, 1965, in Rome, Italy, after collapsing while eating an enormous meal.

During the second half of the 20th century, starting with the land reclamation law of 1953, there has been a major change in the lifestyle of most Egyptians, and this has been combined with a drastic alteration in the diet, with much food being imported, and many new foods introduced as agricultural production has not kept up with the increase in the country's population. The consumption of dairy products, red meat, and sugar has increased, along with processed cheese. The resulting higher level of obesity in Egypt has led to a rise in the prevalence of certain types of diabetes and also coronary heart disease. To try to combat the problem, [Page 12]there have been a number of surveys to ascertain the level of obesity in Egypt, the best publicized one being the Egyptian Integrated Household Survey conducted in 1997. This was critical of the Egyptian food subsidy program, which served to reduce the price of nutrient-poor but energy-dense food, which has caused both obesity and also an increasing prevalence of micronutrient-deficient mothers in the country. Because of the problem in Egypt, there has been the growth of obesity surgery. Dr. Khaled Gawdat, professor of general surgery at the Ain Shams School of Medicine, has been involved in morbid obesity surgery since 1996.

A mosque reflects traditional Muslim values and lifestyle in Africa. Major lifestyle changes in significant areas of Africa have brought with them equally significant changes in the indigenous peoples. Of these changes, in developed nations, obesity is an increasing problem.

In Morocco, there have been problems with obesity in urban areas, especially among the middle-class elite. The researchers Drs. M. Rguibi and R. Belahsen, from the Training and Research Unit on Food Science, Laboratory of Physiology Applied to Nutrition and Feeding, School of Sciences, Chouaib Doukkali University, El Jadida, have conducted a number of studies on obesity in Morocco and found that in 1984/1985 only 4.1 percent of the adult population were obese, but that had risen to 10.3 percent in 1998/1999. A survey in 2000 showed that 13.3 percent of all people aged 20 years or older were obese—the rates being 22 percent among women and 8 percent among men. They were also able to show that obesity was more prevalent in urban areas; the likelihood of being obese increases with age, and is inversely proportional to the level of schooling achieved. A later survey Rguibi and Belahsen in 2006 showed that the causes of obesity included social problems. Their studies of 249 Saharawi women showed 90.4 percent of the women wanting to gain weight, which they did through overeating, or in some cases, by steroid use. A 2005 study of Moroccans living in the Netherlands showed a higher level of obesity in Moroccan children than their native Dutch counterparts.

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