Lancet study reveals alarming surge in global obesity rates

WEB DESK: New data from The Lancet shows that fewer people are starving across the globe. However, it also indicates an explosive growth of another type of malnourishment: obesity.

The global rate of obesity has quadrupled in children and doubled in adults since 1990, according to a new analysis published in The Lancet, a medical journal, on March 1, 2024.

Approximately 1 billion people in the world—that’s 1 in 8 of the global population—are obese, with a body mass index (BMI) over 30.

The World Health Organization describes BMI as “a simple index of weight-for-height that is commonly used to classify overweight and obesity in adults.”

It is calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by the square of their height in meters (kg/m2).

Francesco Branca, Director of the WHO’s Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, mentioned that the organization had previously estimated the global rate of obesity would reach a billion people in 2030.

However, that milestone was reached eight years early—in 2022. Speaking at a press conference about the new Lancet study, its co-author and professor of public health at Imperial College London, Majid Ezzati, stated they were “taken aback” by how fast obesity rates had developed.

Contrary to expectations, this increase in obesity is not primarily occurring in rich countries.

The new data reveals that while obesity rates are generally starting to plateau in many wealthy nations, they are growing rapidly among both adults and children in low-to-middle-income countries, such as Egypt, Iraq, Libya, South Africa, and Chile, with Syria, Turkey, and Mexico not far behind.

Ezzati emphasised, “None of the traditional industrialised world or wealthy nations, except for the United States, appear in the top group [of the most obese nations]. It’s almost exclusively covered by low-to-middle-income countries.”

The number of people starving is falling. The new data shows some progress in reducing the number of people who are starving across the globe.

Over the past 30 years, the global proportion of underweight adults has halved, falling by a fifth in girls and a third in boys under the age of 18 years.

However, the study reveals that in some countries, the situation has not improved. The proportion of underweight adults in countries like Ethiopia and Uganda, for example, has barely changed.

In contrast, other countries, such as India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, have seen the proportion of underweight adults decline sharply.

Nevertheless, Pakistan appears to have traded one form of malnourishment for another.

While the proportion of underweight adults has dropped from 27 per cent to 7 per cent since 1990, the proportion of obese adults has risen from 3 per cent to 24 per cent in the same period.

This is a higher rate of obesity than most countries in the European Union.

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