Global Obesity Rates Quadrupled, Study Finds
A report from UK researchers revealed that the number of obese adults in developing countries have almost quadrupled to around one billion since 1980. It also predicts a ‘huge’ increase in the rates of stroke, heart attack and diabetes.
Using data published in Population Health Metrics last year, researchers from Overseas Development Institute looked at changing overweight and obesity rates across the regions of the world and by individual country.
Results show that the percentage of adults who were overweight or obese (classed as having a body mass index greater than 25) grew from 23% to 34% between 1980 and 2008 worldwide. Majority of this increase was seen among developing countries where incomes were rising, such as such as Egypt and Mexico. North Africa, the Middle East and Latin America saw large increases in overweight and obesity rates to a level on a par with Europe, around 58%.
While North America still has the highest percentage of overweight adults at 70%, regions such as Australasia and southern Latin America are now not far behind with 63%.
A total of 904 million people in developing countries are now classed as overweight or above, with a BMI of more than 25, up from 250 million in 1980.
The greatest growth in overweight people occurred in South East Asia, where the percentage tripled from a lower starting point of 7% to 22%. Many countries in the Middle East also had a high percentage of overweight adults.
According to the researchers, this is due to changing diets and a shift from eating cereals and grains to the consumption of more fats, sugar, oils and animal produce. "People with higher incomes have the ability to choose the kind of foods they want. Changes in lifestyle, the increasing availability of processed foods, advertising, media influences... have all led to dietary changes." said Steve Wiggins, one of the report authors.
The result, he says, is "an explosion in overweight and obesity in the past 30 years" which could lead to serious health implications.
The United Nations said the consumption of sugar, salt and fat (major factors in the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers) has increased globally. United States, Belgium, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Costa Rica, and Mexico had the highest consumption of sugar.
Undernourishment, which largely affects children, remains to be a problem in developing countries.
To cut obesity, Wiggins recommends more concerted public health measures from governments, similar to those taken to limit smoking in developed countries. "Politicians need to be less shy about trying to influence what food ends up on our plates.”
Alan Dangour, a reader in food and nutritional global health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, argued that the urbanisation in developing economies has changed people’s eating habits away from traditional, healthy diets. "We need to act urgently to deal with the scandal of millions of cases of extreme hunger and under-nutrition in children, but we also need to think what happens if we provide lots of extra calories, containing few vitamins, and encourage excess consumption. He noted that undernourishment and obesity often exist side by side, sometimes in the same household. "Clever, joined-up policies are needed."
Source of this article:
Obesity rates up to almost one billion in developing world
©Copyright 2013 by http://www.naturaltherapyforall.com Counselling Brighton All Rights Reserved.