Originally published August 2 2005
Obesity spreads to developing countries
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
According to a world conference held earlier this week, people in developing countries are becoming obese as income levels rise.
"Even in countries such as India, which is typically known for high prevalence of under nutrition, a significant proportion of overweight and obese people now coexist with those who are undernourished," said Praween Agrawal of the International Institute of Population Sciences.
"In the past, governments in many developing countries with high levels of under nutrition and a high prevalence of communicable diseases have paid little attention to the problems of overweight and obesity".
Praween's study of 90,000 women aged between 15 and 49 from across India found that among women who began at a normal weight, 31 percent became overweight and seven percent obese within four years, while 60 percent of those retained their normal weight.
The Indian national health survey of 1998-99 found six percent of women aged between 15 to 49 years old in urban India were obese and 18 percent overweight.
Obesity is growing fast in the developing world, as income levels rise, but affects primarily the wealthy whereas in developed countries it is higher in lower socio-economic groups.
In Latin America and the Caribbean the highest obesity rates were recorded in Uruguay followed by those of Chile and Mexico, although data is patchy according to a study by Flava Cristina Drumond Andrade of the University of Wisconsin in the United States.
Obesity has serious health consequences increasing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, orthopedic disorders and reproductive problems in women.
Obesity is already a major health problem in developed countries with the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimating there are one billion people worldwide who are overweight with 250 million clinically obese, the combined equivalent of seven percent of the world's population.
WHO data for 79 countries estimates there are 22 million five-year-old children who are obese.
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