Global Policy Forum

By Genevieve Roberts

The global obesity epidemic is completely out of control, with more than 300 million overweight adults worldwide, according to specialists at the first international obesity conference in Africa. The meeting in Sun City, South Africa, which ended yesterday, focused on the growing number of obese people across the developing world. Obesity rates are rising exponentially. Many of the 300 million overweight adults across the world are suffering from weight-related illnesses like diabetes, heart disease and sleeping disorders.

In South Africa, obesity levels equal the US, with one in three men and more than one in two adult women are overweight and obese. In Morocco 40 per cent of the population are overweight, while in Kenya it is 12 per cent. In Nigeria between 6 per cent and 8 per cent of people are obese. Professor Philip James, chairman of the International Obesity TaskForce, said that chronic diseases linked to obesity could halt economic progress in many developing countries unless urgent action is taken. Obesity has created a double burden of disease in parts of Africa still struggling to overcome a legacy of malnutrition. He said: "Childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity already present massive problems in this country and in many other parts of the developing world, which are already on the fast track to a massive explosion in type 2 diabetes. The economic burden from this will act as a brake on development, which depends on having a healthy and productive population."

Professor Arne Astrup, president-elect of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, said: "On an African level we see now that obesity is a really major disease, in line with HIV and malnutrition. And it's quite clear that malnutrition and obesity can co-exist at the same time and in the same country." The growing fast-food industry is contributing to the rising obesity levels in Africa. But equally, the spread of Aids dissuades people from losing weight. The disease is nicknamed "slim" throughout the African continent, because victims waste away. As a result, people do not want to lose weight in case others think they are HIV-positive.

Doctors at the meeting said that unless something is done, healthcare services will not be able to cope with treating people with obesity-linked diseases. Africa is not the only continent facing an obesity explosion. About 25 per cent of the people living in the Middle East are obese or overweight, while obesity has risen by 100 per cent among Japanese men since 1982. Children across the world are also growing obese, with the fattest children live in the Middle East, Chile, Greece and southern Italy.

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