A Global Recipe for Disaster
June 11th, 2008 by Rajni Banthia
The obesity crisis is spreading worldwide. Obesity and related chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer- once deemed the preserve of industrialized nations - are now major health problems in developing countries as well. In 2000, the world’s population reached a milestone when for the first time in recorded history, the number of adults with excess weight surpassed the number of those who are underweight.
According to the World Health Organization, in 2005 400 million people worldwide were clinically obese. By 2015, that number is estimated to surge to 700 million.
In many lower- and middle-income countries, such as Mexico or India, under-nutrition and infectious diseases are being replaced by diseases of over-nutrition — such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Obesity is growing fastest in up-and-coming countries, and almost half of those who die from chronic disease are still in their productive years. Moreover, health disparities are widespread and the consequences are not equally distributed, as death rates for chronic illness are greater in lower-income than higher-income populations.
This growing epidemic is yet another example of a potential pitfall of globalization. For better and worse, international trade, population migration, technological advances, as well as changes in the production, marketing, and availability of consumer goods have brought about continuous and rapid lifestyle changes.
Read more after the jump…
In terms of the implications of globalization for health, residents of poorer countries are becoming increasingly sedentary, using more tobacco and alcohol, and eating less healthy foods. Rising obesity rates are an unfortunate side effect of industrialization and an ironic symbol of successful development.
Driven by loss of output, reduced productivity, and increased health-care costs, the global costs of obesity could swell into the trillions of dollars. Income loss in China alone could exceed $550 billion, according to the WHO. As for long-term human costs, if obesity trends are not curbed, life expectancy may start to drop after it has finally begun to rise in many emerging countries. Due to the rapid rise of obesity in the US, for the first time in modern history, a baby born today has a shorter life expectancy than his or her parents.
The current rise in prices of commodities — including fresh fruits, vegetables, and dairy products — will only make matters worse and contribute to declining health. When trying to feed their families on a limited budget, an increasing number of folks are turning to newly available processed foods, which are cheaper and energy dense but nutrient poor.
So what can we do about this health crisis? Most of the world has not and will not ever step inside a gym or go on a diet, so lifestyle oriented changes are in order. Obesity is a demonstration of environmental influences, and behavior change has rarely been achieved by education or individual focused approaches alone. Agriculture must be harnessed to produce enough healthy food to meet the demands of the world’s growing population. The reduction of detrimental subsidies, return of traditional subsistence farming, and the birth of urban community gardens are all promising strategies.
But without concentrated efforts to fight back, the obesity epidemic that is swamping America may soon swamp the world.
Tags: global, health and place, healthy communities, obesity, world health organization
June 11th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
This is startling information –particularly when looking at the distribution of obesity across the globe.
Using the World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, if you combine the number of adults that are overweight with the number of obese adults worldwide, you have a total of 2 billion adults who are above a healthy weight. That means that 1/3 of the worlds entire population is overweight or obese -and looking at the map, the US is weighing heavily into the equation.
This number is in fact not projected to get any better in the coming years, but only get worse. The WHO predicts there will be 3 billion overweight or obese adults in the world in the next seven years. Even with population numbers rising, the addition of 1 billion new overweight or obese adults is very significant.
Also, remember that these numbers (and the map) don’t include any of the world’s children that are overweight of obese.
June 11th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
That is shocking and sad. Thank you for putting together the facts in a clear and concise form. One thing to keep in mind in this conversation is the intricate connections between diet, development, and the use of resources. The prevailing wisdom about development is that the Global South ought to industrialize to the same extent as the North as quickly as possible so that everyone on the planet can enjoy the lifestyle now available in the US, Europe, and to the wealthy of the world’s megacities. That idea springs from the best of intentions but is flawed for several reasons. One is what you’ve highlighted: the diet of the West is massively unhealthy. Another is that the lifestyle of the West, diet included, is heavily resource-intensive. We use many times more water, oil, wood, metal, stone and other materials than those in the South. That would be a concern in any case, since those resources are finite or spring from sources that renew at a slow rate, but it’s downright frightening given how quickly we’re running out of oil, water (in many places), and other raw materials. There’s an iceberg of resource-management issues we’re crashing into with every passing day. Obesity is just the ugly tip that stares you in the face on the subway.
June 11th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
The 2002 World Health Report stated, “Much of the world’s disease burden is the result of under nutrition among the poor and over nutrition among the better-off. Most of the risks are strongly related to patterns of living and particularly to consumption – either too much or too little.” Worldwide, when considering mortality, morbidity, and decreased quality of life, chronic diseases account for the greatest overall population disease burden.
Roland Sturm, a health economist at the Rand Corporation, compared the effects of obesity with those of smoking, heavy drinking, and poverty on chronic health conditions and health care expenditures. His results showed obesity to be the most serious health problem both in terms of chronic illness and health spending.
The situation is espeically troublesome in developing countries where they are struggling with a “dual burden of disease” — malnourished and obese people living in the same household.
The following link provides more information about the phenomenon of the dual burden of disease:
http://www.prb.org/Articles/2006/TheDualBurdenofOverweightandUnderweightinDevelopingCountries.aspx