One third of planet now overweight or obese, new report shows

In case there were any doubts that the world was facing a rapidly surging obesity epidemic, a new study has found that one third of all adults worldwide —1.46 billion people— are now overweight or obese.

U.K think tank Overseas Development Institute released a report last week that reveals the number of overweight and obese people in the developing world nearly quadrupled between 1980 and 2008 from 250 million to 904 million.

"What has changed is that the majority of people who are overweight or obese today can be found in the developing rather than the developed world," write study authors Steve Wiggins and Sharada Keats.

The most significant increases were seen in China and Mexico where overweight and obesity rates have almost doubled, and have similarly risen by a third in South Africa.

The authors suggest one of the reasons for the leap is that rising incomes and bigger purchasing power in middle-income economies often translates into bigger waistlines.

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"We're seeing a middle class emerging which helps the power of the wallet, and a more varied and interesting diet," Wiggins tells CTV. "People are going for more livestock, dairy products, meat and fish. But in amongst all of those, there are foods that have a relatively high fat content and quite a lot of sugar, particularly when you get into the processed food."

Wiggins blames country's governments for putting the obesity public health issue on the back-burner as other national issues take the spotlight.

"As you can imagine in developing countries there are other issues," he says. "And this is a problem which is below the radar."

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He suggests the power of farming and food lobbyists, as well as a lack of understanding of what constitutes a healthy diet further contributes to the obesity crisis.

"Who wants to take on the food industry?" he explains to The Guardian. "Then there is the moral and ethical dimension: people would not like the government to tell them what to put on the dinner table."

It's worth noting that despite these findings, North Americans are still the most overweight and obese population in the world. Approximately 70 per cent of adults in North America are either overweight or obese, according to estimates.