/Featured Quiz11 October - Weekly Featured Quiz - General Knowledge

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Child and teen obesity soars tenfold worldwide in 40 years - WHO report

By Stephanie Nebehay

 

FILE PHOTO: Children sit on a pool side during a summer camp for overweight children which organised by Gangseo district office, in Seoul July 28, 2006. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

 

GENEVA (Reuters) - The number of obese children and adolescents worldwide has jumped tenfold in the past 40 years and the rise is accelerating in low- and middle-income countries, especially in Asia, a major study said on Wednesday.

 

Childhood and teen obesity rates have levelled off in the United States, north-western Europe and other rich countries, but remain "unacceptably high" there, researchers at Imperial College London and the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

 

"Over 40 years we have gone from about 11 million to a more than tenfold increase to over 120 million obese children and adolescents throughout the world," lead author Majid Ezzati of Imperial's School of Public Health, told a news conference.

 

This means that nearly 8 percent of boys and nearly 6 percent of girls worldwide were obese in 2016, against less than one percent for both sexes in 1975.

 

An additional 213 million children aged 5-19 were overweight last year, but fell below the threshold for obesity, according to the largest ever study, based on height and weight measurements of 129 million people.

 

The researchers called for better nutrition at home and at school, and more physical exercise to prevent a generation from becoming adults at greater risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancers due to excessive weight.

 

Clear food labels on salt, sugar and fat content are needed to help consumers make "healthy choices", the study said.

 

Taxation and tough restrictions on marketing of junk food should be considered, it said. WHO has already recommended a 20 percent tax on sugary drinks to reduce consumption.

 

RAPID TRANSITION

 

South Africa, Egypt and Mexico which had "very low levels of obesity four decades ago" now have among the high rates of obesity in girls, between 20-25 percent, Ezzati said.

 

"The experience of east Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean show that the transition from underweight to overweight and obesity can be rapid," the study said.

 

If current trends continue, in 2022 there will be more obese children and teenagers worldwide than underweight ones, who now number 192 million, half of them in India, the study said.

 

Polynesia and Micronesia had the highest rates of child obesity last year, 25.4 percent in girls and 22.4 percent in boys, followed by "the high-income English-speaking region" that includes the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Britain.

 

Among high-income countries, the United States had "the highest obesity rates for girls and boys", 19.5 percent and 23.3 percent, respectively.

 

"Children are not getting physical activity in the school days, there is poor food opportunities in many schools, walking and cycling to school is going down in many countries, unsafe in many other countries, and parents are not being given the right, sufficient advice on nutrition," said Fiona Bull of WHO's department of non-communicable diseases.

 

"It's the changing environments, food, behaviours, portions, consumption patterns have completely changed over the last 40 years. Highly processed food is more available, more marketed and it's cheaper," she said.

 

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-10-11

[canuckamuck]

No surprise, food is easier to get, higher in empty calories, life is more convenient. God or nature will set it right soon enough.

[Laughing Gravy]

Child obesity is abusive and should be put into the same category as purposely starving children. I find many modern day parents are either completely clueless about food and exercise for their children or lazy and don't care. Either way IMO they should be charged with abuse.

 

This goes for Thailand and in the west.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Laughing Gravy

[kotsak]

Healthcare companys' shares will soar..

[Scott]

On a side note, one of things I noticed in the past maybe 20 years or so is the weight of many newborn babies.   Years ago, I never or very rarely saw a 'fat' newborn.   In the past years, I have seen numerous people who have had fat babies, including a number of Thai ladies, who were far from overweight, even during their pregnancy.  

 

 

[ezzra]

Nahhh, too busy with my FB, Twitter, Instagram and other frivolous

time wasting for a bit of exercise, is there an App for it that i don't

have to move and still loose weight? is there?.... 

[phantomfiddler]

All down to the appearance over the last decade of McDonald,s, K.F.C., Pizza Hut etc, who usually almost force one to have a huge cup of coke with your order  These companies have probably killed more people than WW2, all in the interests of making money, very sad ! 35 years ago one rarely saw an overweight Thai but now it is the norm, just check out any gogo bar.

[ToS2014]

guess that 'smart phone' aint so smart, after all how many mindless hours can one spend on it?

[boomerangutang]

55 minutes ago, ToS2014 said:

guess that 'smart phone' aint so smart, after all how many mindless hours can one spend on it?

.....and to have a person's entire brain power focused, for hours non-stop, on a screen the size of a cigg pack.   Sad times for our species.   

[boomerangutang]

Obesity is a health issue.  On average, obese people are going to need more health fixes than people with healthy bodies.  It's a factor in the US health-care debate, though not openly mentioned.  With over half of Americans obese, the added costs are phenomenal.  That's a big reason why the US can't find a way to provide health care for its citizens.

[Laughing Gravy]

3 hours ago, Scott said:

On a side note, one of things I noticed in the past maybe 20 years or so is the weight of many newborn babies.   Years ago, I never or very rarely saw a 'fat' newborn.   In the past years, I have seen numerous people who have had fat babies, including a number of Thai ladies, who were far from overweight, even during their pregnancy.  

 

 

I agree and have noticed that too. I have a feeling that it might be to do with Thais now using manufactured milk and not the mothers milk as so prevalent years ago. the amount of sugar in the milk here is ridiculous and should be addressed. With poor regulatory systems in advertising, you can claim almost anything. We have all seen the constant barrage of adverts on TV with the promoting of milk and drinks, that claim to make children more intelligent, stronger etc. Just look at the sugar content of these products. They are making children addicted to sugar from an early age. Very sad.

[Scott]

A troll post has been removed.  

[Scott]

1 minute ago, Laughing Gravy said:

I agree and have noticed that too. I have a feeling that it might be to do with Thais now using manufactured milk and not the mothers milk as so prevalent years ago. the amount of sugar in the milk here is ridiculous and should be addressed. With poor regulatory systems in advertising, you can claim almost anything. We have all seen the constant barrage of adverts on TV with the promoting of milk and drinks, that claim to make children more intelligent, stronger etc. Just look at the sugar content of these products. They are making children addicted to sugar from an early age. Very sad.

Yes, but I have noticed a lot of newborns who are born fat, something which I can't really verify.   

 

For the younger ones, I know years ago, it was considered to be a good thing to be fat -- a sign of wealth.   I know at the schools where I worked, it was not all that uncommon to see parents force feeding their children.  

 

As far as the rest of the world goes, I suspect there are a lot of factors.

 

I know when I was young, we were sent out to play and not expected home until dinner time.   The area that we covered on a regular basis was probably 10 - 12 sq. Km.   When we got adventurous we would go further afield.   Now, kids are pretty much confined to a very small area, if they have an outdoor area at all.  

[edwinchester]

Our little girl was 2 weeks old today and had a scheduled checkup at the children's ward at our hospital.

I couldn't help but notice the very high number of Thai kids being treated for obesity. These are kids not just a few kg's overweight but some that waddle rather than walk or had a face so fat that their eyes appeared recessed into their heads.

The future health prospects for these kids is very grim indeed and the parents should be threatened with abuse charges if they don't get of their lazy asses and look after their kids.

[Skeptic7]

Not a shocker at all. It's been totally obvious here in Thailand over just the past decade! To much KFC, Micky Dees, DQ and Dunkin Donuts. 

[Jingthing]

6 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

Obesity is a health issue.  On average, obese people are going to need more health fixes than people with healthy bodies.  It's a factor in the US health-care debate, though not openly mentioned.  With over half of Americans obese, the added costs are phenomenal.  That's a big reason why the US can't find a way to provide health care for its citizens.

Not buying that at all. Australia and the UK also have high obesity rates yet can still provide health care to all their citizens for massively less cost. 

[jvs]

A very sad thing to notice that this year more people will die from being obese compared to people who will die from starvation.

If the obese people would eat less nobody would have to be hungry.

The food lobby is even more powerful then the gun lobby in the US.

The army had to lower the requirements for new recruites only a few can do enough pull ups now.

Corn syrup is one of the big evil doers but it will be a long time before anything substantial will change.

[Jingthing]

3 hours ago, edwinchester said:

Our little girl was 2 weeks old today and had a scheduled checkup at the children's ward at our hospital.

I couldn't help but notice the very high number of Thai kids being treated for obesity. These are kids not just a few kg's overweight but some that waddle rather than walk or had a face so fat that their eyes appeared recessed into their heads.

The future health prospects for these kids is very grim indeed and the parents should be threatened with abuse charges if they don't get of their lazy asses and look after their kids.

There are different levels of overweight and obesity so it's actually not all that grim for all that aren't so called ideal weight. But you're right about one thing that is implied in your post. For many reasons it is a known fact that the vast majority of children that become even moderately obese will become obese adults. So bang for the baht preventing obesity in children is the most important area for social policy focus. Easier said than done though. Thailand is a culture eating more and more sugary foods and walking even short distances is typically avoided. 

Edited October 11, 2017 by Jingthing