1 in 5 people will be obese by 2025, study says

The obesity epidemic has gone global, and it may be worse than most thought.  A new study in The Lancet says that if current trends continue, 18 per cent of men and 21 per cent of women will be obese by 2025. In four decades, global obesity has more than tripled among men and doubled […]

The obesity epidemic has gone global, and it may be worse than most thought.
 A new study in The Lancet says that if current trends continue, 18 per cent of men and 21 per cent of women will be obese by 2025.
In four decades, global obesity has more than tripled among men and doubled among women, the study says.
 The paper compared body mass index trends from 1975 to 2015 in 200 countries.
 Here’s what else was interesting:
• Odds are pretty high your country has more obese people than underweight ones. More men were obese than underweight in 136 countries, and more women were obese than underweight in 165 of them.
• In 1975, 2.6 per cent of the world’s population was obese – in 2014, that number jumped to 8.9 per cent.
• Obesity prevalence was less than 1 per cent for men in two countries: Burundi and Timor-Leste. For women, Timor-Leste, Japan, Vietnam, North Korea, Cambodia, Laos and Bangladesh all had obesity prevalence under 5 per cent.
 • Unsurprisingly, high-income, English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States) account for more than a quarter of the world’s severely obese people. Coming in second, though, is the Middle East and North Africa, which is home to 26 million severely obese people, or 13.9 per cent of the world’s severely obese population.
 • Forty per cent to 50 percent of women in several Caribbean and Middle Eastern countries are obese.
• Make way for China. In 1975, China was 60th and 41st for severely obese men and women, respectively. In 2014, it was second for both.
• The United States, though, still takes the cake. More than one in four severely obese men and one in five severely obese women live in the country. By 2025, the study estimates that 43 per cent of women and 45 per cent of men in the United States will be obese.
• What chance does the United States have to stop the rise of obesity by 2025? Zero, the study says.
 Sugary drinks are the epitome of the fast-food diet. Their high sugar content increases the likelihood of obesity, diabetes and other health conditions.
 The Mediterranean diet is renowned for its health benefits. It contains low levels of red meat, sugar and saturated fats and is high in fish and unsaturated fats such as olive oil, fruits, vegetables and legumes.
Diets with little fruit and vegetables can be low in vitamins, minerals and fiber crucial to growth and health.
The Japanese diet is also known for its healthy components – high in soy protein and vegetables.
Diets on the southern Japanese Okinawa Islands contain large amounts of fish, whole grains, soy protein and vegetables.
The Western diet is spreading across the world. It is characterized by a high intake of red meat, refined sugars and saturated fat – but little fiber.
A common feature of Western diets is processed fast food.
Candy bars have been highlighted as a key example of processed foods. Ingredients such as fructose and palmitic acid may initiate a low-level immune response in the body distracting the immune system from other infections.
Some studies have linked eating too much red meat with a shortened life span.
 Source: CNN