If you are not overweight, you may think you do not need this information. And, if you are even a little overweight, chances are this isn’t a comforting subject to spend time reading about. Yet because the problem is so prevalent in our world, you need to be informed. It truly will have a bearing on your future, whatever nation you call home.
by Cecil E. Maranville
The world's serious problems include nuclear arms issues, terrorism, lack of water, AIDS and overpopulation. Probably, most people would not remotely suspect that overweight and obesity should also be on any list of major concerns. Likely, we'd put it on a list of "Western world problems," you know, "rich peoples' troubles." But we would be wrong!
How serious is the problem? "The World Health Organization [WHO] has said obesity is the biggest unrecognized health problem in the world" ("Obesity a World-Wide Hazard," BBC, Dec. 22, 2000, emphasis added throughout).
The same release estimated that more than 75 percent of women over 30 are now overweight "...in countries as diverse as Barbados, Egypt, Malta, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey and the United States. Estimates are similar for men, with over 75 per cent now overweight in...Argentina, Germany, Kuwait, New Zealand, Samoa, and the United Kingdom."
Would you think that India has this problem? It does. With rising incomes, people are choosing diets of fast foods (including pizza and burgers). Nearly half of its 1.1 billion people are under 25, and they increasingly work at jobs that do not require physical labor. Now 35 million have diabetes, and the WHO estimates that will double in only 25 years.
Add Japan, Canada, New Zealand, Latin America and even Russia and China to the list of nations plagued with overweight and obesity.
AIDS, commonly known as "the slims disease" in Africa, is causing an unusual backlash there. People seek to put on weight in order to demonstrate that they do not have AIDS, causing them to suffer other health problems that can be just as deadly.
