US set to be largest citizens in world

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says that citizens of the world’s richest countries are getting fatter and fatter and the US is topping the table, in its first-ever obesity report. Three out of four Americans will be overweight or obese by 2020, and disease rates and health care spending will balloon, The OECD warns, suggesting that governments, organisations and other concerned groups should work together to stop this from happening.
The France-based organization, which brings together 33 of the world’s leading economies, is better known for forecasting deficit and employment levels than for measuring waistlines. However, the economic cost of excess weight – in health care, and in lives cut short and resources wasted – is a growing concern for many governments.
Franco Sassi, the OECD senior health economist, notes, “Food is much cheaper than in the past, in particular food that is not particularly healthy, and people are changing their lifestyles, they have less time to prepare meals and are eating out more in restaurants.” People are also less physically active than in the past. As a result, nearly 70 per cent of the US population is overweight, up from under 50 percent in 1980, according to the OECD. In 10 years, 75 per cent of Americans will be overweight, making it “the fattest country in the OECD,” the report notes.
However, recent findings by US government scientists also indicate the obesity epidemic may be levelling off, with roughly two-thirds of adults overweight and holding steady in the last few years. The lifespan of an obese person is up to 8-10 years less than that of a normal-weight person, the OECD said, the same loss of lifespan incurred by smoking. Rates of obesity are also increasing quickly in countries such as Brazil, China, India and Russia.