World Is Getting Bigger, After All

Aug. 15, 2006 — -- Hollywood stars may be dropping dress sizes before our eyes, but the rest of the world is packing on the pounds.

There now are more obese people than undernourished ones, according to a recent nutritional study.

Not only are countries bulking up, the number of people with love handles has grown.

Although the reasons differ, diet has a lot to do with it.

"Overweight people are exploding around the globe in terms of numbers and rates of change, particularly among adults," said University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor Barry Popkin.

He spoke in a telephone interview from Australia.

There are now more than 1 billion overweight people and 850 million starving ones in the world.

Overweight people also definitely have the upper hand, according to Popkin, who is attending the International Association of Agricultural Economists' annual conference.

"This growth in obesity is accelerating globally, not slowing down," he said. "In many, many countries, two-thirds of the adult population is overweight and obese."

Popkin named the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico and Egypt as some of the worst fat offenders.

India, meanwhile, accounts for one-third of the world's undernourished.

On average, Popkin estimates that 0.5 percent to 1.1 percent of adults tip the scale into the overweight category annually.

Global standards use the body mass index, a measure of body fat based on height and weight, to gauge obesity. An adult with a BMI of 25 is considered overweight, and a BMI of 30 signals obesity.

Kids don't seem to be getting chubby quite as fast, except in Australia where 1.7 percent of children become overweight every year.

Popkin blames the ballooning waist sizes to the added sugars in fruit juices, sodas, and other food items, especially in the Western world.

"Half the caloric intake in the U.S. now comes from sugary drinks," he said.

Because these drinks provide no real nutritional value, people eat just as much as before despite the higher calorie count, he said.