Obesity Is Back in the News

A new study released by the UN has made Nauru in the South Pacific at the top of the list of countries where obesity is high. According to the study 94.5% of the adult population, the above 15+s are overweight. The World Health Organization (WHO) study has revealed the next five countries are from the same region whose population is 90% overweight. The U.S. had come in with an impressive rank of No. 9 where 74.1% of the adult population is overweight and according to the release since the U.S. has 20,000 times more population than the others that ranked high, it is a serious problem.

The cause of the problem had been blamed on urbanization and people have started to be, more and more, dependant on Western style fast food since the South Pacific countries have a close link with the U.S. and New Zealand and because of that processed food could find its way into the nations easily. Other developing countries that are undergoing economical change are also victimized because since they are coming out of malnutrition they will find it easy to fill up with fast foods that do not have much nutritional value, but could be high in calorie. The problem with obesity is it is a source of debilitating disease such as diabetics, where, for example, 34% of Nauru’s population is suffering from it. The U.S. has 19.2 million diabetics, whereas China has 39.8 million, and India has 40.9 million.