Officially, the United States has no longer the heaviest population in the world. Mexico does now.
Nearly 33 percent of Mexicans are diagnosed as obese, compared to just under 32 percent of Americans, making our neighbor to the south the fattest country on Earth, if you don’t count the Pacific Islands region, where rates can go as high as 71 percent, according to a recent report by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).
These latest developments should not come as a surprise. Western-style eating habits are rapidly conquering the entire globe. The ongoing economic crisis inEurope forces more families to limit their food choices to cheaper products like fast food, with predictable consequences.
In parts of Africa, where hunger has long been the predominant problem, obesity rates are now skyrocketing as children are being overfed on unhealthy food supplies but remain dangerously undernourished.
In South America a widespread departure from indigenous diets in favor of imported processed foods already causes tremendous health problems, especially among the young.
Why is all this happening at once? According to the FAO’s assessment, obesity is a result of a series of changes in diet, physical activity and other factors, collectively known as “nutrition transitions.” These trends are now prevalent in developing countries, and also in places suffering from severe economical downturns.
Fast-paced, big city life contribute
Big cities, where work is less physically demanding and motorized transportation is common, are particularly affected. Also, as women enter the workforce in greater numbers, they have less time to prepare meals for their families at home and instead seek more convenient options like eating out or microwaving frozen foods.
Rural areas are not immune to these lifestyle shifts either. There, too, obesity rates are on the rise because of agricultural mechanization and a diminishing need for physical labor.
The greatest impact, however, seems to come from the import of poor eating habits from industrialized countries, most of all the U.S. Our preferences for meat products and processed foods now affect the health of those who are trying to imitate our way of life. And the food industry is more than happy to comply.
“As food companies watch income rise in the developing world, they are setting their sights on new markets. From Mexico to Morocco, the same foods that jeopardize health in wealthy countries are now tempting poor ones,” says the FAO report.
Other dietary changes are taking place regardless of outside influences. With dramatic economical growth in Asian countries comes greater demand for a richer diet. There are now about 100 million obese people inChina, five times as many as there were only a decade ago.
Obesity, of course, is only one aspect of this global health crisis. Diabetes, heart disease and cancer, a.k.a. “non-communicable diseases” (NCDs) because they don’t spread from person to person but are mostly caused by poor living conditions and lifestyle choices, are now identified by the United Nations as the greatest threat to world health. About 36 million people die every year from NCDs, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
As a small silver lining on the horizon may count the fact that nutritional health is on the mind of a growing number of people, and to some extent, the food industry is responding. But switching to healthier diets is difficult, if not outright impossible, for most of the world population because of high prices for fresh foods. Only sweeping policy changes in our existing food production and distribution processes could bring significant improvements – unfortunately, that is not a likely scenario in the near future.
Timi Gustafson R.D. is a registered dietitian, newspaper columnist, blogger and author of the book “The Healthy Diner – How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun”®, which is available on her blog and at amazon.com. For more articles on nutrition, health and lifestyle, visit her blog, “Food and Health with Timi Gustafson R.D.” (www.timigustafson.com). You can follow Timi on Twitter, on Facebook, Google+ and on Pinterest (pinterest.com/timigustafson).
