James Paul 
While media spotlights often turn on infectious diseases, another epidemic is growing: obesity, which currently affects 2.6 billion people around the world. According to A report of The Lancetby 2050, more than half of adults and a third of the children on the planet could be overweight or obese. A real health delay bomb that already threatens global health systems and whose detonators are particularly active in young generations.
When the scale is leaning on the wrong side
If you are not dizzy, read these figures. Currently, 2.11 billion adults aged 25 and over as well as 493 million children and young people aged 5 to 24 are overweight or obese. A spectacular increase Compared to the 731 million adults and 198 million young people identified in 1990.
This dazzling progression results a collective failure in the face of this public health issueas Professor Emmanuela Gakidou underlines the University of Washington: ” The unprecedented global epidemic of overweight and obesity represents a deep tragedy and a monumental societal failure ».
A failure that we owe to many factors : overconsumption of processed foods saturated with sugars and fat, decrease in physical activity due to increasing sedentary lifestyle, limited access to healthy and social and social variable foods.
It would be easy to believe that the majority of people who suffer from this situation are in the United States, but times have changed and we are no longer in the 1990s. More than half of overweight or obese adults live in only eight countries : China (402 million), India (180 million), the United States (172 million), Brazil (88 million), Russia (71 million), Mexico (58 million), Indonesia (52 million) and Egypt (41 million).
Even if the figures are less impressive in France, the proportions make, on the other hand, cold in the back. According to Ameli’s figures” In 2020 […] Overweight still concerns 47 % of French adults. Men are more often overweight than The FEmmes (36.9 % against 23.9 %) 17 % would be obese: 17.4 % obese in women against 16.7 % in men ». In 2020, we were 67.6 million people in France, which means that more than 11 million people are affected by obesity.
Infantile obesity: a very heavy heritage for our cherubs
The perhaps the most alarming aspect of this crisis concerns children and young people. The projections indicate an absolutely astounding increase of 121 % of obesity In this age group by 2050, bringing the number of young obese at 360 million. Researchers found that children gain weight faster than previous generations and that obesity occurs much earlier than before.
Associated risks, We now know them very well : increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease or cancers. A properly frightening painting when you know that these are young people who have not even reached maturity.
This trend is particularly observed in high -income countries, where only 7 % of men born in the 1960s were obese at the age of 25, against 16 % for those born in the 1990s. An increase of 128.5 % ! Forecasts for men born in 2015 are so dark, with an obesity rate estimated at 25 % at the age of 25 (56.2 % increase).
In the United Kingdom, the report predicts that among children aged 5 to 14, obesity will increase from 12 % among girls in 2021 to 18.4 % in 2050, and from 9.9 % to 15.5 % in boys over the same period. A respective increase of 53.3 % and 56.5 %.
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The unbearable weight on global health systems
These figures; from a point of view of individual health; are already quite catastrophic, but if we reason on a larger scale, the scenario darkens more. In 2050, if nothing changed; Which will surely be the case; Almost a quarter of the world’s obese adult population should be 65 years of age. The pressure on health systems, already overloaded even in developed countries, will simply be atrocious; in low -resources countries, They will simply be jeopardized.
The impact in the poorest countries is already devastating; It is A study by the World Obesity Federation Published yesterday that points to this danger of the finger. “” The greatest number of premature deaths attributable to a high BMI is in low and intermediate income countries, which indicates low levels of treatment available Note the authors.
Johanna Ralston, Managing Director of the World Obesity Federation abounds in this direction: ” Obesity has considerable health, economic and societal impacts that may be more difficult to manage for countries less endowed with resources ».
Human history has long been marked by The fight against undernutritioneven in the West: large famine from 1315 to 1317, subsistence crises of the old regime, post-war shorts, etc. We have gradually transformed the lack by excess And ironically, we managed to produce enough food for everyone … extremely poorly distributed and ultra -formed food. Result ? A new health crisis which, this time, does not immediately kill us, but slowly uses our bodies and our health systems. So go to 2050, and if nothing has moved by then, obesity could become the norm, not the exception.
- By 2050, more than half of adults and a third of children will be overweight or obese.
- Obesity now affects 2.6 billion people, with concentration in eight countries.
- The impact on public health and the economy will be considerable, with an increase in chronic diseases and unbearable pressure on medical infrastructure.
