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There is no
doubt that being overweight is a huge risk factor not only
for diabetes but also many other serious diseases like
hypertension, cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea, and on
and on.
In a recent study the World Health Organization (WHO) lists
countries that have the highest percentage of population
over 15 years of age that are overweight. According to WHO,
being overweight is having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 25 or
more. Obesity starts at a BMI of 30 or more.
At the top of the list is the tiny Republic of Nauru, an
island nation in the Micronesian South Pacific. Nauru is the
world's smallest island nation, covering just 21 km, and the
only republican state in the world without an official
capitol. They top the charts at an amazing 94.5% of the
population overweight. Not surprisingly they have the
highest rate of diabetes in the world too at 31%. The United
States comes in ninth with 74.1 % of the population being
overweight.
Experts say it is not
surprising that people across the globe are increasingly
becoming overweight. They blame urbanization and the influx
of Western ways of life including myriad fast food choices,
little exercise and stressful jobs.
This change in lifestyle is
most evident in the South Pacific. On the list of "fattest"
countries, eight of the top 10 are in the Pacific region.
Developing
countries are dealing with what many experts call a
nutrition transition--economies that are used to dealing
primarily with under nutrition must now fight obesity.
"Obesity has become a problem
of poverty," says Daniel Epstein of the WHO Regional Office
of the Americas. “Poor people have an easier time of eating
junk food. People fill up on things that have a high caloric
value but little nutritional value.” A Journal
of the American Medical Association study in May of 2006 by
researchers from Johns Hopkins University showed that teens
living at or below poverty line were more prone to be over
weight than their peers living above the poverty line.
There are currently 1.6
billion overweight adults in the world. In just 10 years,
the WHO projects that number will grow by 40%.
The
increase in these health conditions due to obesity makes the
future seem even bleaker to some experts. The best chance to
reverse this is education about diet and the affects of
obesity on lifestyle in general.
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