Obesity Quadruples to Nearly 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.

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.

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.\"

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.