April - June 2024, Volume 20, Issue 2

Micic D, Polovina S, Micic D, Yumuk VD

Short History of Obesity

Acta Endo (Buc) 2024, 20 (2): 207-211
doi: 10.4183/aeb.2024.207

Obesity epidemic, developed in recent decades with global dissemination, brings scientific interest in causes and consequences for mankind. It is of interest whether obesity existed under different, non-obesogenic environments in ancient time. There is evidence for particular obesity existence in artefacts and pictures from caves, originated in ancient times. Human female figurines from Stone Age that represent obesity were discovered in different countries indicating that some form of obesity existed 30.000 years ago. It is supposed that most of these figures represent in some way “Mother of Goddess “ connected with fertility. Records from Ancient Egyptian and Biblical eras through Greco-Roman to Medieval times indicate that obesity was present throughout peoples of previous centuries in history, although peoples of previous centuries would probably have experienced overweight and obesity as exceptional rather than normal.

Keywords: history of obesity, artefacts, mother goddess, Venus of Hohle Fels, Venus von Willendorf.

Correspondence: Prof. Dragan Micic, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Department of Medical Sciences Knez Mihailova 35, Beograd, 11000, Serbia, E-mail: micicd@eunet.rs