In February, researchers meeting at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting warned that obesity was becoming a problem even in countries that are extremely poor and where many people are undernourished.
The BBC quoted University of Rhode Island anthropologist Marquisa Lavelle as saying,
In terms of developing countries, we tend to assume their problems are related to under-nutrition rather than over-nutrition. What we have discovered is that worldwide levels of obesity have increased to the point where many cultures and many societies have both under-nutrition and over-nutrition.
Given the association of obesity weight chronic disease; with diabetes, with risk factors for heart disease and cancers of various sorts, this puts a burden on the developing world which it can ill-afford.
Oxford University’s Stanley Ulijaszek, who has studied obesity in Pacific Island nations, notes that one problem is that people in developing nations tend to see being obese as a positive thing. “Fatness is carrying your wealth on your body,” Ulijaszek told The BBC.
Source:
Developing world’s extra burden. Caroline Ryan, The BBC, February 16, 2002.