Obesity rates up to almost one billion in developing world
The number of overweight and obese adults in the developing world has
almost quadrupled to around one billion since 1980, says a report from a
UK think tank. The Overseas Development Institute said one in three
people worldwide was now overweight and urged governments to do more to
influence diets.In the UK, 64% of adults are classed as being overweight
or obese.The report predicts a “huge increase” in heart attacks, strokes
and diabetes.Globally, 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.
The majority of this increase was seen in the developing world,
particularly in countries where incomes were rising, such as Egypt and
Mexico.The ODI’s Future Diets report says 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.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.
This compares to 557 million in high-income countries. Over the same
period, the global population nearly doubled.At the same time, however,
under-nourishment is still recognised to be a problem for hundreds of
millions of people in the developing world, particularly children.
Using data published in Population Health Metrics last year, the
researchers looked at changing overweight and obesity rates across the
regions of the world and by individual country.
The regions of 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%.The greatest growth in overweight people
occurred in south east Asia, where the percentage tripled from a lower
starting point of 7% to 22%.Among individual countries, the report found
that overweight and obesity rates had almost doubled in China and
Mexico, and risen by a third in South Africa since 1980. Many countries
in the Middle East also had a high percentage of overweight adults.
One of the report authors, Steve Wiggins, said there were likely to
be multiple reasons for the increases.”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.”He said this was
particularly the case in emerging economies, where a large middle class
of people with rising incomes was living in urban centres and not taking
much physical exercise.
The result, he says, is “an explosion in overweight and obesity in
the past 30 years” which could lead to serious health implications.This
is because consumption of fat, salt and sugar, which has increased
globally according to the United Nations, is a significant factor in
cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers.The world’s top sugar
consumers include the United States, Belgium, the Netherlands, New
Zealand, Costa Rica, and Mexico.
To combat the rising tide of obesity, Mr Wiggins recommends more
concerted public health measures from governments, similar to those
taken to limit smoking in developed countries.He said: “Politicians need
to be less shy about trying to influence what food ends up on our
plates.”The challenge is to make healthy diets viable whilst reducing
the appeal of foods which carry a less certain nutritional value.”
The report cites the example of South Korea where efforts to preserve
the country’s traditional diet have included public campaigns and
large-scale meal preparation training for women.Alan Dangour, a reader
in food and nutritional global health at the London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine, said urbanisation in many parts of the world had
changed people’s eating habits away from traditional, healthy diets.
But he said obesity and under-nutrition often existed side by side,
sometimes in the same household.”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.”
Clever, joined-up policies are needed.”A spokesperson from the
Department of Health said they recognised that high rates of obesity
caused dangerous health conditions and were taking action.
“We are already taking the lead in helping tackle and prevent this
challenge, including through the government’s Responsibility Deal with
industry, NHS Health Checks, the National Child Measurement Programme in
schools and through Change4Life.
“For the first time ever, we’ve given local authorities ring-fenced
budgets to tackle public health issues in their local area, including
obesity.” The Department of Health also said that industry and health
professionals had a role to play in helping people improve their diet
and lifestyles.
BBC
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