The obesity epidemic around the world is reaching staggering proportions. According to researchers, it is the single greatest health challenge facing developing countries. Here are some frightening statistics:
- More than one billion people around the world are overweight [Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than 25], and more than 300 million are obese (BMI over 30).
- Adult obesity increased 50% in just 5 years.
- Obesity in children and adolecents tripled between 1980 and 2000. In children, being overweight leads to high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea, and gallbladder disease. Most telling is that what was once called adult onset diabetes has been renamed as type 2 diabetes because it is now ocurring in adolecents.
- Being overweight is associated with dramatic increases in heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, arthritis, and psychological disorders as depression.
- 300,000 dealths each year in the United States aone are associated with obesity.
- The economic cost of obesity in the United States was over $100 billion in 2000 and has grown larger since that time.
- Eight of out ten Americans over age of 25 are overweight.
- According to a Johns Hopkins Study published in July 2008, 100% of American adults will be overweight by the year 2048!
Any extra fat is dangerous, but science now believes that the largest health risk is when fat accumulates deep within the abdominal cavity. A major study reported recently in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes that having too much of this "belly fat" can actually double your risk of dying from heart disease, stroke, cancer,a nd diabetes, and it can triple your risk of dementia. And here's the most frightening statistic from its important 10 years study: for every extra 2 inches (or 5cm) around your waistline, you increase your risk of early death up to 17%.
