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Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Growing Obesity Rates as Nation's Develop

A 2017 New England Journal of Medicine report listed the following statistics on obesity using data from 2015:

Highest number of obese children:
  • China, at 15 million
  • India, at 14 million

Highest number of obese adults:
  • United States, at 79 million
  • China, at 57 million

Global obesity rates:
  • 5 per cent of children
  • 12 per cent of adults

This is a cultural problem that needs to be solved. Reasons for the problem cited by the study were increased availability, accessibility, and affordability of energy-dense foods, and intense marketing of such foods - not the amount of wealth. Salt and sugar and fat are ingredients that are cheap and addictive, a convenience foods no-brainer for corporations wishing to profit from this simple concept.



Definitions: Note that the CDC defines obesity as...
Obesity is defined as a BMI at or above the 95th percentile for children and teens of the same age and sex.

For adults, if your BMI is 30.0 or higher, it ranks in the obese category.