The negative effects of
unhealthy processed fat and sugar-rich diets in combination with low
physical activity began to be recognized in the early 1990s, but they
did not become clearly acknowledged until diabetes, hypertension, and
obesity began to dominate the world.
As well as in countries
with high income levels, rates of obesity and overweight are widely
documented in the poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa and South
Asia. In these countries, higher incomes imply access to unhealthy
fattening food, and consequently, higher prevalences of obesity.
Healthy food is usually either not available or not affordable. While
in the developed world, obesity is already considered a pandemic,
this is also now true for the developing countries. Obesity is
affecting both rich and poor countries and causing more deaths than
undernourishment, according to the World
Economic Forum, which is actually bankrupting economies and
short-changing future generations in a major way.
Governments from the
richest countries have stated to implement policies to fight the
pandemic, with an array of large-scale programmatic and policy
measures. However, few developing countries are engaged in serious
efforts to prevent the serious dietary challenges being faced.
