LONDON (Reuters) - According to new research, if no serious action is taken, more than half of the world's population will be overweight or obese by 2035.
According to the Global Obesity Federation's 2023 atlas, 51% of the global population, or more than 4 billion people, will be fat or overweight in the next 12 years.
Obesity rates are growing more quickly among youngsters and in low-income nations, according to the research.
The findings, according to Louise Baur, head of the Global Obesity Federation, are a "clear warning," and governments must act now to prevent the issue from worsening.
"It is especially disturbing to observe the fastest-rising obesity rates among children and adolescents," she added in a statement.
"Governments and politicians all around the world must do all they can to prevent passing on the health, social, and economic consequences to future generations."
According to the analysis, youth obesity might more than double from 2020 levels by 2035, hitting 208 million boys and 175 million girls.
According to the federation, the societal cost of overweight-related health disorders would be more than $4 trillion per year by 2035, or 3% of global GDP.
The authors, on the other hand, argue that they are not condemning individuals but rather drawing attention to social, environmental, and biological factors associated with these diseases.
Body mass index (BMI) is used to evaluate the report, which is derived by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by the square of their height in meters. A BMI of more than 25 is considered overweight, and a BMI of more than 30 is deemed obese, according to World Health Organization recommendations.In 2020, 2.6 billion individuals, or 38% of the world's population, will fall into these groups.
The survey also discovered that virtually all of the nations expected to have the highest rises in obesity in the next few years are low- or middle-income Asian and African countries.
Next week, the numbers will be given to UN authorities and member nations.