August 15th
For the first time, the number of overweight people in the world has overtaken the number of malnourished, with a billion people considered as heavier than advised. According to experts attending a meeting of the International Association of Agricultural Economists, the transition from a starving world to an obese one is accelerating.
“The reality is that globally far more obesity than under-nutrition exists” said Professor Barry Popkin, a nutritionist at the university of North Carolina. Professor Popkin said that while the number of hungry people was falling, the ranks of the obese continued to grow at an alarming rate. They now number about 300 million worldwide.
“Obesity is the norm globally and under-nutrition, while still important in a few countries and in targeted populations in many others, is no longer the dominant disease” he said.
It is often assumed that obesity is a problem confined to Western, developed countries, but this is no longer the case. Obesity is a growing problem in many developing countries due to a change in diet towards greater consumption of fatty foods and a decline in physical activity.
In a comparison between the USA with one of the highest rates of obesity in the world, with Japan which has one of the lowest, Professor Benjamin Senauer of the University of Minnesota said that the average Japanese man walked four miles a day (around 8000 steps), while almost a quarter of American adults walked between 1000 and 3,000 each day.
“Japanese cities are based on efficient public transport – and walking” he said. “The average American commutes to work, drives to the supermarket and does as little walking as possible”.
Physical activity was no longer part of the everyday lives of many Americans, who instead had to make a special – and often costly – effort to engage in exercise, such as playing golf or using the gym. But in fact the best way to increase daily activity levels is to find a way of building walking into activities of daily living. Using a pedometer is a great way to raise awareness of daily activities and the general recommendation of 10,000 steps each day is a good starting point.
Dr David Ashton
Medical Director
Healthier Weight Centres
