Obesity and overweight

Obesity is not directly caused by marketing, but marketing does influence what children want to eat.

The majority of food and beverages marketed to children are unhealthy products, high in fat, sugar and/or salt. This has an effect on children’s diets and will ultimately affect their weight and their health.

On this page you will find an overview of the issues related to obesity and overweight.

Find out more about:
What causes overweight and obesity
Consequences
The global extent and rising numbers
Common misconceptions

What causes overweight and obesity

An unhealthy diet in combination with a lack of physical activity – in other words, an imbalance between calorie intake and calorie use – leads to weight gain, consequently a person becomes overweight and eventually obese, if this imbalance continues.

In many countries diets have changed towards fast food and a more sedentary lifestyle. This has a profound impact on overweight and obesity rates.

Obesity and overweight can be measured by using the Body Mass Index (BMI), which is a weight - height - relation.

Take your weight in kilograms and divide by the square of your height in meters. For example, if you are 1.65m tall and weigh 58 kilograms calculate your BMI like this:

 58/(1.65x1.65) = 21.5

Or use the BMI calculator provided by the UK's National Health Service.

Consequences

Even more than 2000 years ago the risk excess weight poses to health was known:

“Corpulence is not only a disease itself, but the harbinger of others”

Hippocrates¹

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognised obesity as a disease. But more importantly, overweight and obesity can cause a number of other health problems.

The main concern is the increased risk of developing chronic noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes or heart disease. Other consequences include joint problems, infertility and even some cancers.

Unrecognised, overweight and obesity are a major cause of premature deaths due to the other diseases they cause.

The global extent and rising numbers

The number of people who are overweight or obese is rising in almost every country around the world.

The WHO estimates that in 2005 there were 1.6 billion overweight people in the world with 400,000 being obese. In addition to this, 22 million children under the age of five and 155 million school-aged children are overweight or obese.

Overall this adds up to almost 1.8 billion people with an increased risk of developing other conditions, which can lead to an early death, or chronic disease.

Obesity and Diabetes in the Developing World — A Growing Challenge² (Hossain et al) is a recent scientific report. It explains that developing countries that have adopted a Western lifestyle - which involves less physical activity and eating more food high in fat, sugar and salt - have seen obesity rates triple.

The Middle East, Asia Pacific region and especially China are seeing a rise in obesity rates, combined with a rapid increase in associated diseases such as diabetes.

The table below shows the percentage of overweight men and women in 2002 and the predicted rates for 2010. It becomes clear that overweight rates are rising in all of these countries for both men and women.

Source: WHO Global Infobase

In fact, out of the 192 countries with data available for 2002 and projected for 2010, the percentage of overweight men is predicted to rise in 159 countries and the percentage of overweight women is predicted to rise in 170 countries. Only two countries, Japan and Jordan, are expected to have lower overweight rates among women in 2010 compared to 2002³.

Common misconceptions

More people are overweight than are hungry in the world.

Currently some 824 million people suffer from chronic hunger whilst 1.8 billion are overweight - that's more than twice as many people.

Once considered a problem only in high-income countries, overweight and obesity are now dramatically on the rise in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings.

Most people assume that malnutrition is the biggest dietary problem in developing countries but as the report¹ explains that the relationship between obesity and poverty is complex: if you are poor and living in a low-income country the biggest dietary challenge will be malnutrition, but if you are poor and live in a middle-income country obesity will be a bigger risk.

Historically divided between rich and poor countries, obesity and malnutrition increasingly exist side by side. Many low- and middle-income countries now experience the problem of having a population suffering from malnutrition and obesity, sometimes in the same household. Overweight and obesity are no longer problems restricted to the West.

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