Equity in Obesity

While incomes and living standards between rich and poor countries are constantly diverging, the Third World is catching up with the West in one area - obesity. I was shocked to read that obesity is a HUGE issue in Africa. Consider this:

More than one-third of African women and a quarter of African men are estimated to be overweight, and the World Health Organization predicts that will rise to 41 percent and 30 percent respectively in the next 10 years... Some 56 percent of South African women are now either obese or overweight, compared to fewer than 10 percent who are underweight. More than 17 percent of adolescents here are overweight _ for teenage girls, it's 25 percent, according to the Medical Research Council.

Already, diabetes is the fourth largest disease in most developed countries, with an estimated 194 million sufferers. This number is expected to skyrocket as the incidence of diabetes in the developing world increases, as is expected. Just how much is evident when you check out the Diabetes Atlas put out by the Internation Diabetes Foundation. Switch the year from 2003 to 2025, and bam!