1 Billion Fat people
We all know that malnutrition is a horrifying scourge affecting millions in developing nations. But on the other extreme, largely in the Western world, the issue of weight tips the scales in the other direction. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), for every four malnourished adults across the globe, five MORE are overweight.
In fact the count of overweight people worldwide has now reached the billion mark – and with more and more children becoming obese each year that number is increasing steadily all the time.
The international standard for determining obesity is the body-mass index (BMI).
This is one’s weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of one’s height (in meters).
Of the billion overweight people, an unhealthy 30% are clinically obese. In the USA 30% of the entire population are obese. African Americans have the lion’s share of this percentage, at 45%. Comparatively in Germany the obesity figure is almost half, at 12%, while the Italians have a modest 8% in the extreme overweight bracket. At either end of the extreme percentages we have China at a low average of 5% while Samoa exceeds a frightening 75%.
These statistics were shared at the recent conference in Boston, Massachusetts, where around 2 000 delegates met for 4 days to discuss the treatment and prevention of obesity. The event was hosted by NAASO – The North American Society for the Study of Obesity.
Although obesity is less severe in Europe than in the States, the numbers are still expanding at a steady pace. For example, in France, with a population of just over 60 million, 5.9 million people are obese today. This is concerning when compared with the figure of 3.6% a decade ago.
The effects of obesity are far greater than the individual loss of self esteem. The resultant health and economic problems impact heavily on local economies and experts fear that with the problem growing at such an alarming rate it could eventually cripple the worst-hit countries’ economies.
With obesity being recognized as a global epidemic by the WHO, it is sobering to compare the billion overweight of the world’s total 6 billion population, with the 800 million who do not have enough to eat.
Now that’s some food for thought.