From BMI to Waistline: The number of people suffering from obesity worldwide has crossed 100 crores. That means 1 out of every 8 people in the world is obese. Among these, the number of women is about one and a half times more than that of men.
This has been revealed in a study by WHO and Imperial College London published in Lancet. In this study, data from 1990 to 2022 of 192 countries has been analyzed.
The problem of obesity has increased more than 4.5 times in the last 3 decades. This analysis has shown that in 1990, 226 million people were obese worldwide, which included 128 million women, 67 million men and 31 million children/minors.
In 2022, the number of obese people has crossed 103.8 crores. These include 50.4 crore women, 37.4 crore men and 16 crore children/minors.
Obesity should not become an epidemic in India!
This study is also an alarm bell for India because it has the highest number of obese people out of 192 countries. About 8.25 crore people are suffering from obesity here. Of these, 4.4 crore are women, while 2.6 crore are men. It is also a matter of concern that more than 1.25 crore children in the country are victims of obesity.
About three decades ago, in 1990, the number of obese people in the country was 39 lakh. These included 24 lakh women, 11 lakh men and 4 lakh children.
Obesity according to stomach and BMI
Obesity is generally assessed in two ways. If we look at the roundness of the stomach, a roundness of more than 80 cm in women and 94 cm in men is considered obesity.
On the other hand, according to BMI i.e. Body Mass Index, BMI more than 25 is considered overweight and BMI more than 30 is considered obesity.
In India, according to BMI, 23% women and 22% men are obese, while according to abdominal circumference, 40% women and 12% men are obese.
Double challenge for India
Obesity means high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and many other diseases. In such a situation, especially in a country like India, where malnutrition is already a big problem, the problem of obesity is a double whammy.
According to the experts involved in this study, the biggest reason for increasing obesity has been said to be wrong lifestyle and eating habits and the first number in this is processed food. Health experts recommend eating healthy food and adopting a better lifestyle.
