Rates of Obesity Soaring in Developing Nations

The problems with obesity are no longer just in the United States. The dangerous epidemic that has been long-associated with the West is now beginning to take hold in developing nations such as India and China. This has caused the countries to see many people packing on extra weight.

The Overseas Development Institute, in a new report called Future Diets, used information that covered a period of 28 years from Mexico, China and India, amongst other countries, to demonstrate a trend in developing nations towards obesity. The analysis done by the ODI revealed that from 1980 to 2008 obesity tripled in the developing nations that were examined, which resulted in over 904 million people obese.

According to results from the research, India alone currently has as many as 1.46 billion people considered obese or overweight, with a national rate of 11% for those considered obese or overweight.

In China, a similar rated for obesity is seen amongst young adults, particularly people between 20 and 39 years of age, with overall obesity rates in the country double what it was only 3 decades ago.

The ODI report also showed that there is a greater percentage of obese in poor countries compared to in wealthier nations. The 904 million people considered obese or overweight in the developing nations compares to only 557 million in the majority of industrialized nations.

Many countries that see their people as not having enough food to eat are also the same countries seeing a dramatic increase in their obesity rates.

The paradox is relatively recent and has researchers and scientists looking for reason behind the new trend.

Increases in median income amongst countries most effected, couple with lowering prices of food in the same countries appear to be what is driving the soaring rates of obesity in India, China and other similar nations.

Blame also must be placed on the increase of media and advertising campaigns regarding foods, much of which are unhealthy and full of calories. Higher consumption of salt, sugar and fat has been associated with industrialization. However, the diets across the different nations are not necessary similar.

Consumption in India of animal products has increased, but in dairy products not meat, while in China the increased in consumption of animal products means more meat is consumed.

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Nancy Young

When I was younger I used to spend almost all of my free time playing computer games. My mom and dad would go mental over this. “You’re never going to do anything with your life if you are going to play games all day” they used to say. What was even more unusual was the fact that I played more games than most of the guys in my friend group. Looking back, I have to admit that I probably played a bit too much, but I also learned a lot of great things. When I turned 20 I decided that it was high-time to make some money of my own, but the only jobs I could get were that of waitress or cashier. How exciting. After several excruciating months of serving tables I had a great idea: since I love gaming so much, why don’t I write about it? That’s when I started doing small writing projects on Elance. Eventually, I got an offer for a part-time job. During that time I learned all about content marketing strategies and how search engines work. I started writing about various topics such as technology, health and lifestyle and discovered that I was actually good at it. On November 24, 2014, I became part of the ArgyllFreePress team.