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the number of obese and overweight people in the developing world almost quadrupled from 250 million to 904 million between 1980 and 2008, according to a study published this month by a British think tank. During the same period, obesity rates in high-income countries increased by 1.7 times.
One third of adults in the world-1460000000 people-are now overweight or obese, said the report by the Overseas Development Institute. But in 2008, more people were overweight and obese in developing countries (904 million) than in rich countries (557 million).
dramatic weight gain in the developing world since 1980 is mainly due to two factors, the report says: richer diets and more sedentary lifestyles. More people in the poorest countries earn enough to spend diets built on cereals and tubers to diets rich in meat, fat and sugar, and now have a life more and more stationary. That led to rising global incidence of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
"What has changed," says the report, "is that the majority of people who are overweight or obese today can be found in developing, rather than developed countries, worldwide."
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