This was a fascinating article to write. It takes me way too long to write an article because I find myself drawn into the research…I hope you find this upsetting enough to do something about it starting with yourself and your family.If you’re all fit and healthy-good for you!-then help someone else.

Obesity is excessive fat accumulation that may impair health and is often defined as having a body mass index or BMI, greater than 30Kg/sq.meters. The BMI is a single number that evaluates an individual’s weight status in relation to height; the weight in pounds or kilograms is divided by their height in inches or meters (kg/m2), squared. The World Health Organization or WHO, defines “overweight” as a BMI equal to or more than 25 and “obesity” as a BMI equal to or more than 30, but there is evidence that risk of chronic disease increases progressively from a BMI of 21. Obesity leads to serious health consequences such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers.

Ten Fattest Countries

According to a June, 2010 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development or OECD, the United States is the ‘fattest country’ with 30.6 percent obesity. Mexico’s obesity rate is next with 24.2 percent, then the United Kingdom at 23 percent, Slovakia with 22.4 percent, Greece with 21.9 percent, Australia with 21.7 percent, New Zealand at 20.9 percent, Hungary at 18.8 percent, Luxembourg at 18.4 percent and the Czech Republic at 14.8 percent completing the top ten countries.

Population Differences

In the United States, obesity rates have steadily increased since the 1980s in both men and women, although educated women have lower rates. Obesity rates are 17 percent higher in African-American women and 6 percent higher in Mexican-American women than in non-Hispanic white women. Forty percent of American children are currently overweight and of these, half are obese. Hispanic boys and African-American girls have the highest obesity rates-50 percent higher- than white non-Hispanic boys and girls, respectively.

Reasons

The fundamental cause of obesity is an energy imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended. A global shift in diet toward increased intake of foods that are high in unhealthy fats and sugars but low in vitamins and minerals causes undernutrition and obesity to exist side by side. Decreased physical activity due to changing modes of transportation, urbanization and the increasing use of television, computers and video games exacerbates the obesity pandemic.

Prevention

Overweight and obesity and their consequent diseases are largely preventable.

Conditions in which people are born, grow up, live, work and age- and the factors that influence those conditions must be addressed. Governments, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector, especially the food industry, each have important roles to play in making healthier diet options more affordable and more accessible. Reducing the fat, sugar, salt content and portion size of processed foods, while increasing healthy and nutritious choices could accelerate health gains worldwide.