Obesity has become a pandemic that has been playing out over decades, and a new study published in Nature says it now reaches every country in the world. The research traced obesity prevalence patterns across 200 countries over 45 years, using data from more than 4,000 studies and 230 million participants.
The findings are stark. Obesity has increased in every single country, rich and poor, and the rise is feeding type 2 diabetes. An expert opinion from the University of Auckland said governments all over the world seem reluctant to do anything about it, even as the study argues the only plausible cause is the displacement of real foods by ultra-processed foods over the past half century.
That shift did not happen by accident. The source says the spread of ultra-processed foods was driven by the corporate pursuit of profits, a pattern that has reshaped diets in country after country. It also notes that public support exists for banning junk food marketing to children, requiring front-of-pack labels that make healthiness clear, and taxing sugary drinks.
New Zealand and other high-income, English-speaking countries were affected early and climbed to high obesity rates before the pace began to change. New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom have started to plateau since about 2000, and European countries also leveled off around the same time. The study says media coverage about obesity hit the headlines in the early 2000s, helping push the issue into public view.
But the plateau does not undo the damage. Governments, including New Zealand’s, have known for decades about junk food, rising obesity and the health consequences, yet the source says lobbying by ultra-processed food corporations has blocked action. That gap between public concern and policy has left a billion or so people in the world now living with obesity, with the health burden still climbing.
Now the question is not whether obesity is a global emergency. The numbers already answer that. The real test is whether governments will use the tools the public already supports, or keep watching a preventable crisis deepen while the food industry defends the status quo.
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