We Just Keep Getting Fatter

Stop the growth of obesity.

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued that challenge to the international medical and scientific communities in 2011. Specifically, the group asked for help in returning obesity rates to 2010 levels by the year 2025.

Yet by 2014, the initiative had already failed — the worldwide obese population grew from 11.5 percent, or 656 million people, to 13 percent, or 670 million people. Of those individuals, at least 41 million are said to be children, age 5 and younger, who are considered obese or overweight. That number is 25 percent higher than three decades ago.

The new rates makes the 2025 goal all but impossible to reach.

“The global obesity epidemic is a consequence of human mastery of food scarcity, particularly high carbohydrate grain products and complex sugars,” said Shingai Samudzi, of Berkeley, California, who created Yabbit, a platform that allows hospitals to connect with patients seeking preventative care for obesity and diabetes.

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U.S. food manufacturers lead the way in the processing of those high carbohydrate grain products and complex sugars, and have been accused of spreading the negative aspects of the western diet around the world in the name of profit.

As farming practices and synthetic pesticides have depleted the soil, the nutrients in produce diminish every year, causing consumers to eat more to be satiated.

According to Dr. Mark Mincolla, PhD, M.A., author of “Whole Health” and “The Whole Health Diet,” over 80,000 chemicals are approved by the FDA as food additives. These chemicals interfere with the body’s metabolism.

“Pesticides like malathion, diazinon, parathion and chlorpyrifos are now referred to as obesogens, because they are endocrine-disrupting chemicals that lead to weight gain,” Dr. Mincolla, who practices natural health care in Boston, Massachusetts, told LifeZette. “These obesogens are also found in food packaging plastics and additives.”

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Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), high fructose corn syrup and trans fats are other important keys to the widespread weight gain across the world, he believes.

Also, “the fast food industry is investing heavily in foreign markets where public awareness of nutrition is lacking,” said Mincolla.

Samudzi agreed the mass production of food, especially cheap, simple carbohydrates, is a concern, adding, “It’s important to remember the economic and political incentives behind the production, as well as the shift in human lifestyle that accompanies urbanization, particularly the marked decrease in physical activity.”

Television, computers, phones and other electronics have had the biggest impact on decreasing activity levels, which is occurring all over the world, according to registered dietitian Courtney Calo of Sarasota, Florida. She and three partners created the Play2Health program for young people after seeing U.S. schools cut budgets an average of 80 percent since 2008. Those cuts have reduced or eliminated the arts, music and physical education, leaving many children without traditional routes to play and be active.

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WHO research shows there are 10 million totally sedentary children and 33 million children who are not active to healthy standards in the United States. An estimated one in three American children ages 2 to 19 are either overweight or clinically obese.

Calo emphasizes that the overfed and under-moving child is not just an American phenomenon.

“Childhood obesity is a global issue for the future,” she told LifeZette. “Africa and many developing countries are experiencing lifestyle transformations, and obesity rates among middle class African children has become problematic. The African diet in urban areas is increasingly laden with high fat foods, with the growth of fast food restaurants and increased availability of processed foods in supermarkets. As social conditions improve, African children are becoming more sedentary in their lifestyle and engaging in less activity.”

With so many factors involved, obesity remains one of the most complicated challenges the global population faces. Attempts to slow obesity in the U.S. have had little effect, so a much-needed global intervention will need to inspire greater action.

Pat Barone, CPCC, BCC, MCC is a professional credentialed coach and author of the “Own Every Bite!” bodycentric re-education program for mindful and intuitive eating.