Which country has the highest rate of obesity ?

i think US and UK also have the highest rate of obesity because they take lot of junk food.i heard in china also the rate is increasing day by day.

During the last 25 years, the rate of obesity has quadrupled in the UK. In England alone, 22 per cent of men and 23 per cent of women were classified as clinically obese in 2002, while 43 per cent of men and 34 per cent of women were overweight. This means that over half of all adults weigh more than their recommended weight. In the USA obesity rates increased from 15 per cent of the population in 1980 to 31 per cent in 2000. In Canada, almost 50 per cent of the population is either overweight or obese . Fifty-six per cent of adults and 27 per cent of children in Australia are either overweight or obese . According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) there has been a three-fold rise in obesity rates in many European countries since the 1980s, and if the prevalence of obesity continues to increase at the current rate, 150 million adults in Europe will be obese by 2010. Obesity is measured by Body Mass Index (BMI) scale. This takes into account a person’s weight and height. A person is considered to be obese if they have a BMI of 30 or above, and overweight if their BMI is between 25-30. According to a report from 2002, Europe has one of the highest average BMIs (26.5) of all the WHO regions . However, BMI is slightly confusing as athletes with a lot of muscle (which weighs more than fat) would also register a high BMI score. A recent study of obesity rates in the Middle East showed that 50 to 70 per cent of married women and 30 to 50 per cent of married men in the Gulf States were clinically obese, and that obesity rates overall were much higher than in developed countries. There are around 1 billion overweight adults worldwide, of whom 300 million are clinically obese. The World Health Organisation has described obesity as a ‘worldwide epidemic’. Obesity can lead to a variety of health problems, including high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, and osteoarthritis, and diabetes. A National Audit Office study from 2002 estimate that obesity cost the NHS £500 million a year, and the cost to the country overall has been put at up to £7.4 billion per annum. Why do people become obese? There are many reasons why people become obese. These include genetic predisposition, environmental factors, and socio-economic influences. Obesity tends to run in families, and children with two obese parents have around a 70 per cent chance of becoming obese, while those with two lean parents have only a twenty per cent chance. However, the huge increase in obesity rates over the last 50 years, a very short time in evolutionary terms, suggests that environmental factors are a more significant influence. People from certain ethnic groups may be more likely to become obese than others. Studies conducted in the USA show that people from Black and Hispanic backgrounds have a much greater chance of becoming obese. There are also differences in how fat is distributed. For example, Mediterranean women tend to have more fat around their middles than northern European women. Asian immigrants to the UK also tend to have more central fat. These differences may be due to cultural, genetic or socioeconomic factors, or to a combination of all three. In developed countries, there is an inverse relationship between obesity and socioeconomic status. For example, among women from social class I (professional), the rate of obesity is 10.7 per cent, while in women from social class V (unskilled), one in four women is obese . Major factors in the growth in obesity are thought to be decreasing levels of physical activity and more sedentary lifestyles, and the rise in our consumption of processed and “junk” food

US..........its proven..

It's the US, no doubt about it. But many of the European countries are having similar problems.

It's the US, no doubt about it. But many of the European countries are having similar problems.

usa

children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 years, 17.1% were overweight...and 32.2% of adults aged 20 years or older were obese in USA

in europe its the united kingdom and worldwide i would thionk the united states