Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Obesity World Wide

Earlier this year, I wrote about obesity in the USA, its impact on children, and where trends were going globally.

While I always thought we Americans were really outdoing ourselves and the rest of the world, this week I stumbled across a couple of articles talking about obesity on a global scale. 

Let's just say, those articles shocked the pants off me.


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Starting with this article, here are a few quotes for you to chew on:


- Obesity is now blamed for around 5 percent of all deaths worldwide and has a similar negative effect on the global economy to smoking and armed conflict.

- It is predicted that almost half of the world's adult population will be overweight or obese by 2030.

- Obesity now costs the global economy $2 trillion in healthcare and lost productivity -- or 2.8 percent of global GDP -- $100 billion less than both smoking and armed conflict.


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And then there was this article.  We'll keep this one simple with just a summary:


Rank Country Overall Obesity % Women's Obesity Attributed to…
10 Venezuela 31% N/A Healthy food shortages & high prices
9 Syria 32% "Soaring among women" Self home quarantine due to war
8 United States of America 32% N/A (I think we already know)
7 Mexico 33% N/A Readily available processed/calorie rich foods  & lack of nutritional literacy
6 South Africa 33.50% N/A A growing fast food market
5 United Arab Emirates 33.70% N/A A growing junk food market, longer working hours & increasingly sedentary lifestyles                             (Interestingly, last year the government launched a weight loss challenge that rewarded loss with gold)
4 Jordan 34.30% 2:1 ratio      (women vs men) No details noted
3 Egypt 35% N/A Prevalence of affordable fast food coupled with an increase in per capita income
2 Saudi Arabia 35.20% Over 37% Conservative lifestyles that tend to shy away from physical activity
1 Kuwait 42.80% Over 50% A rapid rise in national prosperity


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So ... what should we do about this?  Well, I have a thought...


 

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