Obesity is a complicated condition, caused in part by many social, psychological and
physical factors.
It’s present across all age and socioeconomic groups - in both developed and developING
nations.
Over 115 million people worldwide are thought to suffer from obesity-related problems.
As a result, the World Health Organization has called rising trends of obesity, an “epidemic”.
So, why is the world getting fatter?
And which nations have the highest rates of obesity?
Well, the W.H.O.
defines overweight or obesity status as “abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair
health”.
And the Body Mass Index, measuring a ratio of weight to height, classifies people into
categories of Underweight, Normal Weight, Overweight and Obese.
The W.H.O.
classifies anyone with a BMI above 25, as Overweight, and above 30, as Obese, which
may have significant health risks associated.
A study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation reported in 2014 that there were
a total of 2.1 billion overweight or obese people worldwide.
Between 1980 and 2013, the prevalence of overweight or obese adults increased by 27.5%.
In children, those rates increased by about 47%.
Pacific Island nations including the Cook Islands, Palau and Nauru have the most severe
weight problems, according to a 2014 W.H.O.
report.
They each have about four out of five citizens overweight or obese.
Several Middle Eastern nations, including Qatar, and Kuwait, also ranked near the top.
Other notable nations with high occurrences of overweight and obesity included the United
States, the United Kingdom and Mexico.
In all three of these nations, roughly 2 in 3 people have a weight problem.
Countries on the opposite end of the spectrum are Burundi and Timor-Leste, with about one
in ten citizens overweight or obese.
Why is the world getting fatter?
Well, the W.H.O.
suggests that, with urbanization, “there has been an increased intake of energy-dense
foods that are high in fat; and an increase in physical inactivity due to the increasingly
sedentary nature of many forms of work…”
Other factors that contribute to the global weight gain are urban sprawl, which necessitates
more car travel, a lack of health education, and more cheap, but nutritionally deficient
food.
This was the case for Pacific Island nations, and other isolated places with high rates
of obesity.
Over the past few decades, they have become increasingly dependant on low-quality, imported
food, instead of traditional diets.
The World Health Organization has expressed concerns that the number of overweight and
obese people worldwide will continue to rise as many communities struggle to acclimate
to popular modern diets.
Right now, the obesity epidemic is deadly, debilitating and, in some parts of the world,
completely out of control.
CTA If you’d like to learn why the BMI scale
is probably not the best way to go about measuring obesity worldwide, make sure you understand
the big picture by watching this episode of DNews.
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