x-men 3: carbito returns

nice little article on the obesity epidemic on the beeb:

Obesity rates are escalating everywhere. More than 300 million adults worldwide are overweight and most of them are suffering from weight-related illnesses like diabetes, heart disease and sleeping disorders.
[...]
In South Africa, one in three men and more than one in two adult women are overweight and obese. These are same levels as in the United States.

In Morocco 40% of the population are overweight, while in Kenya it is 12%. In Nigeria it is estimated that between 6% and 8% of people are obese.
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"On an African level we see now that obesity is a really major disease, in line with HIV and malnutrition. And it's quite clear that malnutrition and obesity can co-exist at the same time and in the same country," she said.
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Traditionally seen as a sign of wealth, being fat now has another significance for people living here.

Aids has had the nickname "slim" in Africa for many years because it makes its victims literally waste away. As a result, people do not want to lose weight in case others think they are HIV-positive.
[...]
"If you always think about fixing, whether it's HIV or obesity, by treating the final problem you're always going to be in a mess.

"We've got to take that lesson on board and see now how we have to change the whole way we allow cities to develop, where we don't produce cities where it's extremely difficult to exercise at all, and every turn that you make you've suddenly got a fast food outlet that's bombarding you with complete rubbish."

But Africa is not the only continent facing an obesity explosion.

About 25% of the people living in the Middle East are obese or overweight, while obesity has risen by 100% among Japanese men since 1982.
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The fattest children live in the Middle East, Chile, Greece and southern Italy.

kim jong il's marketing team should start saying that they're not starving the populace -- they're preventing them from being obese.

i thought that bit on urban planning was really interesting...hopefully the blogosphere will expound on that meme in the coming weeks...