Copyright 2000 Inter Press Service
March 7, 2000

Health: World's Overfed Population Rivals the Number of Hungry

For the first time in recorded history, the world's overweight population now rivals the number of underfed people, according to a new report released by a Washington-based environmental think-tank.

As the world's underfed population declined slightly since 1980 to 1.2 billion, the number of people defined as overweight has surged to 1.2 billion, says the Worldwatch Institute in the report released Mar. 4.

Urbanization, increases in prosperity, and other social factors, have led to increases in obesity and overeating, even in many developing countries, it says. While affluence this last century bypassed millions of people, it also swept millions to new diets that were bountiful, but usually not rich in nutrients.

"Often, nations have simply traded hunger for obesity, and diseases of poverty for diseases of excess," says Brian Halweil, co-author of the report.

In China, the share of adults who are overweight jumped by more than half -- from nine percent to 15 percent between 1989 and 1992. In Brazil and Colombia, for example, 36 and 41 percent, respectively, of the population is overweight. These levels match those of many European countries.

"Traditional diets featuring grains and vegetables gave way to urban patterns of eating foods heavy in fat and sugar, even as a shift to sedentary work and leisure activities demanded fewer calories," says Worldwatch.

It is now not uncommon for the overweight populations in many developing countries to exceed the underweight population.

"Still struggling to eradicate infectious diseases, many developing nations' health care systems could be crippled by growing cases of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other chronic illnesses" associated with overeating, he says.

While there have been some health gains from modest declines in hunger worldwide, this has been offset by increases in overeating. While the specific health consequences of hunger and overeating can be very different, both the overweight and underfed suffer from malnutrition, a deficiency or excess in a person's intake of nutrients and other dietary elements needed for health living.

"The hungry and the overweight share high levels of sickness and disability, shortened life expectancies, and lower levels of productivity -- each of which is a drag on a country's development," says Gary Gardner, another author of the report.

The public impact is enormous, according to Worldwatch. More than half of the world's disease burden -- measured in "years of health life lost" is attributable to hunger, overeating and widespread vitamin and mineral deficiencies, it says.

"Both developed and developing nations are paying a high price for malnutrition"; caused by both hunger and overeating, says the report. Worldwatch cites World Bank estimates that hunger cost India between three to nine percent of its GDP in 1996.

Meanwhile in the United States, where 55 percent of the adults are overweight by international standards, obesity cost the country 12 percent of the national health care budget in the late 1990s, $ 118 billion. The report points out that this is more than double the $ 47 billion attributable to smoking related illnesses in that country.

Using the number of underweight children as a measuring stick, it becomes apparent that hunger in the developing world has fallen over the past two decades, says Worldwatch. There were 26 million fewer children estimated to be underweight in 2000 than in 1980.

The greatest progress in reducing hunger was achieved in Asia. And the greatest relative reduction came in Latin America, where the population of underweight children was cut in half, according to the report. But sub-Saharan Africa saw an increase in the number of children who are underweight.

In sub-Saharan Africa, "the number suffering from this condition nearly doubled -- spotlighting the continent as an area deserving particular concern," says the report.

Despite the progress in some regions, hunger remains stubbornly rooted across much of the developing world. The greatest concentration of chronically hungry people is in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

About 44 percent of South Asia's children are underweight, while the shares in India, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan are well above this average. In sub-Saharan Africa, 36 percent of children are underweight, but the figure approaches 50 percent in nations such as Somalia, Ethiopia, and Niger.

And in Latin America, with a relatively small share of hungry people, particularly countries and sub-regions such as Haiti and Central America still have high levels of hunger, says Worldwatch.

Hunger hits children the hardest, increasing their vulnerability to infectious diseases or conditions such as diarrhoea, which often lead to permanent mental and physical impairment or even death, says the report.

"While the myth persists that hunger results from a scarcity of food, inequitable distribution of resources and gender discrimination prevent most of the world's hungry from getting enough to eat," says Halweil.

About 80 percent of the world's hungry children, he says, live in countries with food surpluses, for example.

"The common threat that runs through nearly all hunger, in rich and poor nations alike, is poverty," says the report.

Many countries have aimed to boost the status of women as a way toward reducing hunger. A 1999 analysis of malnutrition in 63 countries, by the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, found that improvements in women's education, access to health care, and living environment were responsible for 75 percent of the reductions in underweight among children.

According to Worldwatch, Cuba and the Indian state of Kerala, have been successful at reducing malnutrition by targeting women and children for food, health and nutrition programs.

Eliminating micro-nutrient deficiencies, such as a lack of vitamin A or iodine in the diet, says the report, can produce rapid results for little cost. The World Health Organization programme to iodize salt in 47 countries between 1994 and 1997, for instance, cut the prevalence of iodine deficiency disorder from 29 percent to 13 percent.

But in nations where overeating is or is becoming a major problem, policy makers need to take a different approach to halting malnutrition, says Worldwatch.

Many governments are turning toward teaching healthy diets and lifestyles in schools. Singapore has begun a "Trim and Fit Scheme" which aims to increase nutrition in children through changes in school catering and physical education for children and teachers alike. Already, this has reduced obesity among children by 33 to 50 percent, depending on the age group.

Governments may have to turn to regulating advertising that promotes high calorie, high fat, and low nutritional food. Countries could use the examples of Sweden and Norway, for instance, which do not allow any advertising aimed at children under 12.

In the absence of a strong government educational effort on nutritional issues -- in schools, on product labels and through the regulation of food advertising -- most people get their nutrition cues from food companies, Gardner argues.

"In the modern food environment, we're like children in a candy shop, every day of our lives," he says.