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- Alice Davis
- BBC News
Children at a school in Mexico do physical exercises to lose weight.
The Global Obesity Federation has warned that more than half of the world’s population will be classified as obese or overweight by 2035, if no action is taken.
According to a report by the federation, more than four billion people will be affected, and rates will rise faster among children.
Low- and middle-income countries in Africa and Asia are expected to see the largest increases in the number of people who are obese or overweight.
The report predicts that the annual cost of obesity will reach more than $4 trillion by 2035.
The union’s president, Professor Louise Bohr, described the report’s findings as a clear warning to countries to act now or risk repercussions in the future.
The report highlights in particular the high rates of obesity among children and adolescents, as rates are expected to double from 2020 levels among both males and females.
The trend is “particularly worrying,” Louise said, adding that “governments and policymakers around the world need to do everything they can to avoid passing health, social and economic costs onto the younger generation,” by assessing the “systems and underlying factors” that contribute in obesity.
The report also highlights the effects of obesity prevalence on low-income countries. It found that nine of the ten countries with the largest projected increases in obesity globally are low- or middle-income countries in Africa and Asia.
Reasons for this include trends towards a preference for more highly processed foods, higher levels of sedentary behaviour, weaker policies to control food supply and marketing, and health care services with fewer resources to help with weight management and health education.
The report said low-income countries “are often least able (than other countries) to respond to obesity and its consequences.”
The findings estimate that rising rates of obesity worldwide will have a significant impact on the global economy, equivalent to 3 percent of global GDP.
The report stresses that its acknowledgment of the economic impact of obesity “does not in any way reflect blame on people who suffer from obesity.”
The data published in the report will be presented to the United Nations on Monday.
Obesity is a medical term used to describe a person who has a high percentage of body fat.
The report uses body mass index (BMI) to make its assessments. BMI is calculated by dividing an adult’s weight by the square of their height.