You're Welcome, World: America Is Behind Climbing Childhood Obesity Rates Sophia Lepore - TakePart
go to original October 16, 2016

From First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign and Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution to parents who pester their kids to eat their vegetables and put down the video games, health advocates around the world are doing their best to reduce childhood obesity. Despite these efforts, new research released last week shows the childhood obesity epidemic is on track to get worse over the next decade.

The report, published in the October issue of Pediatric Obesity by the World Obesity Federation, found that the World Health Organization’s goal of halting the rise in obesity levels for children, adolescents, and adults by 2025 is unlikely to be achieved - and the obesity rate for children is set to soar.

For the report, the federation analyzed obesity data for 184 countries from 2000 to 2013 that was collected by the Global Burden of Disease collaborative, a group of roughly 500 researchers from 50 nations. In 2013, 14.2 percent of the children around the globe were overweight or obese, up from 12.8 percent in 2000. The federation estimates that by 2025, 15.8 percent of the world’s children will be obese. That means “some 268 million children aged 5–17 years may be overweight, including 91 million obese, assuming no policy interventions have proven effective at changing current trends.”

The largest increases in childhood obesity are projected to take place in developing nations. “We found that around the great majority, four of every five of the children suffering excess weight, were living in low- and middle-income countries, not the rich developed countries,” Tim Lobstein, policy director for the World Health Organization, wrote in an email to TakePart. “Last century, the big problem was under-nutrition, but with the spread of junk food around the globe and rising urbanization the problem is rapidly becoming excess weight and obesity.”

The researchers estimate that by 2025, China, which saw a 40 percent rise in childhood obesity between 2000 and 2013, will have the greatest amount of obese kids in the world - nearly 50 million children. India is expected to come in second, with a projected 17.3 million obese children by 2025. The third, fourth, and fifth spots are expected to taken by the United States, Brazil, and Egypt, with a projected 16.7 million, 11.4 million, and 10.6 million obese children, respectively, by 2025.

Read the rest at TakePart

Related: Drinks and Snacks Health Initiative: PepsiCo Pledges to Cut Down on Fat, Salt, Sugar Content in Products by 2025 (Medical Daily)

Related: Can Banning Fast Food from a Neighborhood Help Curb Obesity? (TakePart)

Related: WHO: Taxing Sugary Drinks Can Curb Global Epidemic of Obesity and Diabetes (Newsroom America)

Related: America’s Obesity Problem Is a National Security Issue (TakePart)

Photo: Getty Images

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