Obesity Rates Around the World Essay

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OBESITY

Country Worst Obesity

Three countries: Why obesity rates are so high

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity is no longer a disease of affluence. As noted in its 2015 Fact Sheet on the issue of obesity and overweight worldwide, over-nutrition rather than under-nutrition is linked to a higher percentage of deaths across the globe. Broadly speaking, this phenomenon is associated with an expansion of industrialization and a more Westernized, processed diet, causing a dramatic decrease in caloric expenditure and an increase in easily-consumed calories from processed foods. Obesity is a multi-factorial disease, linked to changes in "health, agriculture, transport, urban planning, environment, food processing, distribution, marketing and education" ("Obesity and overweight," 2015).

The United States has one of the highest obesity rates in the world: 30.6% ("Obesity: Countries compared," 2015). This has caused a great deal of understandable shock and consternation in many quarters. How is it possible that such a wealthy and powerful nation has such a high indicator of ill health? To understand the reasons for this requires a careful analysis of the demographic factors behind this percentage. First of all, obesity rates have been rising since a very specific point in time: "In 1990, not one U.S. state had an obesity rate greater than 14%, according to the CDC…in 2010, 36 states had an obesity rate of at least 25%, with 12 states reporting an obesity rate beyond 30%" (Berl 2012:1). This spike coincides with a number of sociological phenomenon, including the promotion of a low-fat diet as a method of weight loss; increasing income disparities between the wealthiest and poorest Americans; and also changes in culture due to technology which have decreased physical activity for many Americans.

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As early as the 1970s, Americans were advised to eat less saturated fat as a method of weight loss. However, this resulted in a dramatic upsurge of dependence upon carbohydrates as a source of nutrition. As noted by nutritionist Marion Nestle, an overly simplistic correlation between fat consumption and heart disease, combined with an increasing dependence upon corn-based agriculture resulted in a spike in the consumption of high-sugar, high-carbohydrate foods. But "the food industry would substitute vegetable fats for animal fats in such a profound way, and would also substitute sugars for fats, and keep the calorie content of the products exactly the same" (Nestle 2004). High-carbohydrate food, particularly those high in refined sugars, are far less satiating than those high in protein and fat.

The fact that carbohydrates are cheaper than higher-quality protein foods, however, is also a factor in understanding the phenomenon. Poorer, food insecure households are more likely to be dependent upon such foods. As the disparity between rich and poor has grown, so have obesity rates and specific states (particularly the south) and particular groups (historically discriminated-against minorities) have much higher obesity rates. But in America, obesity, while affected by income, is not purely a poverty problem. While "non-Hispanic blacks have the highest rates of obesity, followed….....

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