Obesity Weighs on Latin America After Successes in Fight Against Hunger Fox News
go to original February 24, 2015

Ordering fried chicken at a fast-food restaurant in Colombia's capital, Paola Flores is one of millions of Latin Americans struggling with obesity, an epidemic hitting this region harder than others in the developing world.

More than 56 percent of Latin American adults are overweight or obese, compared to a global average of 34 percent, according to a report by the Overseas Development Institute last year.

The growing problem often affects the poorest in society, and threatens to overwhelm Latin America's public health systems and curtail economic gains in the long run, experts say.

"Buying a family combo of fried chicken, chips and a soft drink can feed me and my three children at a price I can afford," Flores, a secretary, said as she stood in line.

Since 1991, the number of hungry people in Latin America has nearly halved to 37 million in December from 68.5 million. While the region is the only one that is on track to meet U.N. goals on reducing hunger by 2015, far less attention has been paid to combating obesity.

In the past decade, fast-growing economies buoyed by a commodities boom, including Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, have seen a rising middle class with a taste for more processed food that are high in salt, sugar and fat.

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Photo: flickr

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