Overweight and obesity grow in the world and, if urgent socks are not adopted, it is expected that by 2050 about 60% of adults and one third of children and adolescents suffer them, which will mean an unprecedented threat of diseases and premature deaths.
The authors of a report signed by collaborators of the study on the World Morbidity burden BMI and publishes The Lancetthey warn of “the imperative need to act immediately to prevent a worldwide epidemic of unprecedented overweight and obesity.”
The overweight and obesity rates in adults (over 25 years old) and in children and adolescents (between 5 and 24 years old) have more than duplicated in the last three decades (1990-2021), affecting 2,110 million adults and 493 million young people around the world in 2021.
The analysis, which was carried out with data from 204 countries and territories, considers young children and adolescents from 5 to 14 years; teenagers older than 15 to 24 and adults 25 years and older.
The investigation emphasizes that this situation has contributed “the massive failures worldwide in the response to the growing obesity crisis,” he says The Lancet.
The investigation emphasizes that this situation has contributed “the massive failures worldwide in the response to the growing obesity crisis”
On the 2050 horizon, it warns that, if urgent political measures and reforms are not taken, around 60% of adults (3.8 billion) and one third (31%) of children and adolescents (746 million) are expected to be overweight or obesity.
The study provides for a substantial increase (121%) of obesity among young people, with a forecast that the total number of children and adolescents reach 360 million in 2050 (186 million more than in 2021), with substantial increases immediately (2022-2030).
The fastest accelerations of obesity are foreseen in North Africa and the Middle East and in Latin America and the Caribbean, where it is expected that in 2050 a third of all obese children and adolescents in the world (130 million) are expected.
As for the adult population, almost a quarter with obesity in 2050 will have 65 years or more, which “will intensify the pressure on already overloaded health systems and wreak havoc on the health services of the countries with few resources,” adds the magazine.
The prevalence of obesity doubled throughout the world between 1990 and 2021, both in adult men (from 5.8% to 14.8%) and in women (from 10.2% to 20.8%).
“The unprecedented world epidemic of overweight and obesity is a deep tragedy and a monumental social failure,” according to the main author of the study, Emmanuela Gakidou, from the University of Washington, cited by The Lancet.
“The unprecedented world epidemic of overweight and obesity is a deep tragedy and a monumental social failure”
If these trends are maintained, world overweight and obesity rates among adults will increase from 43.4% estimated in 2021 to about 57.4% for men in 2050, and 46.7% to 60.3% for women, with the highest increases planned in Asia and sub -Saharan Africa, driven by demographic growth.
Although the largest number of adults with overweight and obesity is expected in China (627 million); India (450 million) and the US. (214 million) In 2050, the number in sub -Saharan Africa is expected to increase more than 250 % to 522 million, driven by population growth.
The most recent generations fattening faster than the previous ones and obesity appear before.
By 2050 it is forecast that there will be more children between 5 and 14 years with obesity than overweight (16.5% compared to 12.9%), while in women (from 5 to 24 years old) and in older men (from 15 to 24 years old), overweight is still expected to remain more prevalent than obesity.
The authors underline that Quinquenal Action plans are urgently needed (2025-2030) to stop the increase in obesity and contribute to the elaboration of new objectives and goals for the era of the sustainable development objectives after 2030.
The study has some important limitations, such as that, although it uses the best available data, the predictions are limited by the quantity and quality of the previous data, as well as the systemic biases of the self -declared data, which probably persist despite the attempts to correct biases.
In addition, it did not take into account the possible impact of interventions, such as the extension of GLP-1 obesity medications, which could alter the long-term forecast trends of overweight and obesity.
According to the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), between 2017 and 2020 two out of five Americans (41.9% exactly) could be considered obese, a category that is above the overweight and that means that the person has an index of more than 30 body mass.
According to the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), between 2017 and 2020 two out of five Americans (41.9% exactly) could be considered obese
The problem does not affect everyone equally, and there is a racial factor that clearly affects the results of the investigation: among the black population, obesity affects almost one in two people (49.9%), and among Hispanics this percentage decreases slightly to 45.6%, while in the case of whites it drops to 41.1%. In contrast, only 16% of Asians suffers.
Obesity has verifiable results in health: 58% of obese adults have hypertension problems (and therefore of heart risks), and 23% suffer from diabetes.
This has other derivatives such as the consequences on the economy of families: in 2019 an individual with obesity had average $ 1.861 of annual medical expenses more than another with a healthy body weight; Together, expenses directly related to obesity assumed that year a total of 173,000 million dollars.
It is no accident that obesity has reached the high policy, and in fact the controversial Secretary of Health appointed by Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy, has been in a personal crusade against the so -called junk food that according to him poisons the health of the Americans.
According to the National Institute of Health (official), 32% of adults and 49% of children have “a poor quality diet”, and in fact percentages close to 90% consume junk food at least once a day, the greatest consumption being that of black and Hispanic populations.
Percentages close to 90% consume junk food at least once a day, the greatest consumption being that of black and Hispanic populations
After decades of failures of the miracle diets and the millions of dollars spent with gyms and sports routines in an unsuccessful way, in recent years a series of medications that seem to have spectacular results in the case of obesity have appeared.
The best known has been Ozempic, an injection thought in principle to combat type 2 diabetes and was popularized by personalities such as Elon Musk, the presenter Oprah Winfrey and actress Rebel Wilson, which helped him lose more than 35 kilos.
For the first time, and contrary to medicines of previous generations, the Ozempic does not seem to present serious side effects, beyond the economic ones, because at the time of ‘Bum’ it cost more than $ 900 per user and month.
But the popularity of the medication encouraged pharmaceuticals to invest more in that same line of research, which helped to bring to the market other competitors such as Wegovy or Mounjaro, with much more affordable costs for the American on foot.
In addition, it has been discovered that some of these medications have beneficial collateral effects, and they help improve the fertility of women who manage to overcome obesity.
