WHO reports steep rise in obesity in poorer countries

By Aussiegirl

Is this really a problem? You'd think this was a good sign of growing prosperity. And what "actions" are they planning to take to stem this growing menace? Perhaps a few engineered famines would do the trick -- it sure worked for Stalin in Ukraine in the 1930's -- where over 7 million Ukrainians who were too plump for his taste were starved to death on his orders. Or maybe a Kofi Annan diet -- you get to eat whatever's left on the plate after he and his son and every other corrupt official in the UN gets his share. That should just about do it. Honestly, there's no pleasing these people, either they are worried that people are starving (and rightly so) or they are complaining that they are too fat.

New Scientist Breaking News - WHO reports steep rise in obesity in poorer countries: "A staggering one billion of the world's population of 6.45 billion is overweight, warns the World Health Organization. And rates of overweight and obesity are rising dramatically in poorer countries, not just wealthy nations.

If the current trend continues, by 2015 there will be 1.5 billion overweight people in the world. Being overweight or obese greatly increases a person's risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other chronic diseases.

'The sheer magnitude of the overweight and obesity problem is staggering,' says Catherine Le Gal�s-Camus, WHO assistant director-general of noncommunicable diseases and mental health.

'The rapid increase of overweight and obesity in many low and middle income countries foretells an overwhelming chronic disease burden in these countries in the next 10 to 20 years if action is not taken now,' she says."