Overweight The world population is far too fat

World population is getting fatter

05/30/2014

Almost a third of the world's population suffers from obesity or obesity. This was the result of a survey by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), which analyzed patient data from over 180 countries from 1980 to 2013. Thus, 2.1 billion people were overweight or even obese last year.

More than half of the overweight people are spread over ten countries
While in 1980 857 million people worldwide weighed too much, 2.1 billion people were affected by obesity in 2013 - and the number is rising. The number of overweight people is increasing significantly faster than the world population. Like Marie Ng from IHME and her team in the trade magazine „The Lancet“ This development can be observed both in industrialized countries and in developing countries. The particularly overweight people, who are by definition no longer overweight but obese (obese), are spread over ten countries. Among them are Germany, India and China, but above all the USA.

The researchers used the body mass index (BMI), which is calculated from body height and body weight to evaluate the weight. The weight in kilograms is divided by the square of the size in meters. A BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered to be overweight, at a value of 30 or higher experts in obesity (adiposity).

Wrong diet and lack of exercise are the main causes of obesity
„Obesity is a problem that affects people of all ages and incomes - everywhere, "quotes the news agency „dpa“ the IHME director Christopher Murray. 671 million people worldwide have a BMI of 30 or higher, but the largest proportion live in the US. The Middle East seems to be on the heels of being overweight in the US. The biggest increase in obesity over the past 30 years has been recorded in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Oman, among others.

Obesity is one of the main risk factors for cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke, which are the number one killer in many countries. But also metabolic diseases such as diabetes or lipid metabolism disorders and some cancers are favored by a too high body weight. Added to this are social and psychological problems that often lead to depression. The main causes of obesity are poor diet, physical inactivity, genetic predisposition, certain medications, stress and lack of sleep.

More and more children are affected by obesity
Another worrying finding in the study concerns weight gain in children. Even among the youngest is a significant increase in overweight recorded. „We know that childhood obesity has serious downstream health effects, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and many cancers, "author Marie Ng told the news agency.

„Prevalence has increased significantly among children and adolescents in developed countries: 23.8 percent of boys and 22.6 percent of girls in 2013 were overweight or obese. The prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents has also increased in developing countries from 8.1% to 12.9% for boys and from 8.4% to 13.4% for girls“, write the authors of the study in the journal.

Also in Germany there are more fat children, adolescents and young adults. For example, one in five young people is overweight and one in twenty is obese. Of the adult citizens over the age of 20, approximately 64 percent of men and 49 percent of women are overweight.

„Obesity has become one of the most important global health challenges due to proven health risks and the significant increase in frequency, the authors write. „Global action and guidance is urgently needed to help countries act more effectively.“