PHM-Exch> Obesity Soars to ‘Alarming’ Levels in Developing Countries "The growing rates of overweight and obesity in develop-

[Claudio Schuftan]

The extent of the world's obesity epidemic has been

thrown into stark relief as a report from the Overseas Devel-
opment Institute (ODI) puts the number of overweight and

obese adults in developing countries at more than 900 million.

 Future Diets, an analysis of public data about what the

world eats, says there are almost twice as many obese people

in poor countries as in rich ones. In 2008, the figures were

904 million in developing countries, where most of the

world's people live, compared with 557 million in industrial-

ing countries are alarming," said the report's author, ODI

research fellow Steve Wiggins. "On current trends, globally,

we will see a huge increase in the number of people suffering

certain types of cancer, diabetes, strokes and heart attacks,

putting an enormous burden on public healthcare systems."

 The report warns that governments are not doing enough

to tackle the growing crisis, partly due to politicians' reluc-
tance to interfere at the dinner table, the powerful influence

of farming and food lobbies and a large gap in public aware-
ness of what constitutes a healthy diet.

 According to the report, overweight and obesity rates

since 1980 have almost doubled in China and Mexico, and

risen by a third in South Africa, which now has a higher rate

than the UK. Regionally, north Africa, the Middle East and

Latin America all have overweight and obese rates on a par

with Europe.



See:

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/

jan/03/obesity-soars-alarming-levels-developing-countries
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