International Cooperation is Key to Reversing the Global Obesity Epidemic

Written in collaboration with Kirstin Krusell

Since 1980, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has more than doubled worldwide. The statistics are staggering: in 2008, 1.5 billion adults were overweight and nearly 1 in 10 were obese. The health consequences are enormous — obesity is a leading cause of global mortality. More than 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese. In all, 44 percent of the world’s diabetes burden, 23 percent of the death and disability from cardiovascular disease and between 7 and 41 percent of certain cancers are attributable to overweight and obesity. As a result, 65 percent of the world’s population lives in a country where overweight and obesity kill more people than hunger and under-nutrition. [1] Although once considered conditions of affluence, overweight and obesity are now on the rise in low- and middle-income countries. As a result, these nations are now facing the double burden of infectious and chronic diseases.

In 2010, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), of the world’s 43 million overweight children, almost 35 million live in developing countries, compared to 8 million in developed countries. [2] This is particularly alarming, given that childhood obesity is

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