Fattest Country in the World

A recent World Health Organization (WHO) report revealed that more than a billion people across the world are overweight, and approximately 300 million of these people are clinically obese. These obesity statistics highlight the fact that this problem has reached epidemic proportions over the last few years. While obesity rates across the world vary significantly, they seem to be quite high in certain countries. It may come as a surprise for many, but a look at the list of world's fattest countries reveals that at least 10 countries of the world have more than 60 percent of its population overweight. Before we move on to see which is the fattest country in the world, let's have a look at the definition of obesity and overweight in general.

Obesity: Definition

Obesity is a health condition - typically characterized by accumulation of excess body fat in the body to an extent wherein it interferes with certain body functions, causes various health problems associated with these body functions and reduces the person's life expectancy. Body mass index (BMI) - the tool used for determining whether a person is obese by taking his height and body weight into consideration, defines a person as obese when his BMI exceeds 30 kg/m². Similarly, if the person's BMI is between 25 kg/m² and 30 kg/m² he is considered to be overweight - a condition which precedes obesity. The obesity rate is considered to be an indicator of the country's nutritional trends and health care scenario, which makes it extremely important when determining the progress of the said country in the field of health care.

Fattest Country in the World 2010

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, the distinction of being world's fattest country goes to the American Samoa islands in the Pacific Ocean. Around 93.5 percent of the people inhabiting this island are overweight in nature. While the problems such as obesity and overweight seem to be quite common when it comes various islands in the Pacific belt, it seems to have reached epidemic proportion in American Samoa. Experts are of the opinion that the introduction of fast food in the American Samoan diet is the underlying cause of obesity in this region. That being said, you may come across sources which give a list of world's fattest countries with American Samoa featuring nowhere on it. This can be attributed to the fact that it is an unincorporated territory of the United States. If that criteria is taken into consideration, the island nation of Kiribati (again in the Pacific Ocean) becomes the fattest country in the world with 81.5 percent of its population being overweight.

10 Fattest Countries in the World

While the American Samoa is the fattest country in the world, several other countries seem to be closing in to the top spot and the rising obesity rates for these countries validates this fact. Given below is a list of fattest countries in the world as per the statistical data compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Rank	Country	Obese Population (%)
1	American Samoa	93.5
2	Kiribati	81.5
3	USA*	66.7
4	Germany	66.5
5	Egypt	66.0
6	Bosnia-Herzegovina	62.9
7	New Zealand	62.7
8	Israel	61.9
9	Croatia	61.4
10	United Kingdom	61.0

*Obesity in the United States: The fact that United States features at the 3rd position in the list of world's fattest countries highlights the growing problem of obesity in America. Some of the fattest cities in America are Corpus Christi (Texas), Charleston (West Virginia) and El Paso (Texas) etc.

That was a brief information about which is the fattest country in the world, with passing reference to the top 10 fattest countries in the world. Obese people are more vulnerable to several diseases and disorders, with type 2 diabetes, heart problem, osteoarthritis, etc. topping the list. According to the WHO estimates, almost all the countries mentioned above spend anywhere between 2-6 percent of their total health care expenditure on health problems caused by obesity. While this is just the estimated expenditure, the actual expenditure is considered to be a lot more hefty than this.

Facts about Obesity

Obesity is an individual clinical condition. However, research reveals that it is now becoming a serious public health proble, increasing by the day. The condition is predisposed to cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes and osteoarthritis.

Obesity is evaluated in absolute terms by measuring BMI. BMI stands for Body Mass Index. Along with caculating the body mass index, obesity is also evaluated in terms of its distribution through waist circumference. In addition, the presence needs to be checked in the context of other medical conditions that could influence risk of complications.

BMI, or body mass index, which is very important to the evaluation of obesity, is a widely used method for estimating body fat. BMI is calculated by dividing the patient’s weight by the square of the height and expressing the answer in metric or customary units.

The World Health Organization has specified a BMI less than 18.5 as under weight and a BMI of 18.5–24.9 as normal. Its directives to the medical fraternity specify a BMI of 25.0–29.9 as over weight and one of 30.0–39.9 as obese.

Physicians consider race, ethnicity and lean mass or muscularity, while checking for obesity. The person’s age and sex are also factors that affect the interpretation of BMI.

Mild obesity is not a cardiac risk factor and hence in this case, BMI cannot be used as a sole epidemiological predictor of cardiovascular health.

It is essential to know that BMI does not take into account differing ratios of adipose to lean tissue. It also does not distinguish between the different forms of adiposity.

The absolute waist circumference or the waist to hip ratio is used to measure central obesity. Research reveals that waist circumference explains obesity-related health risk better than BMI.

Obesity can also be determined by assessing body fat percent. Men with more than 25% body fat and women with more than 30% are defined obese. The most accepted method to measure body fat precisely, so far, has been to weigh a person underwater, with special equipment. The other two simpler methods are the skinfold test and the bio-electrical impedance analysis. However, their routine use is discouraged.

The risk factors and diseases that are commonly associated with obesity are also used to establish a clinical diagnosis of the condition. In fact, sleep apnea and coronary heart diseases are life-threatening risk factors that indicate clinical treatment of obesity.

Mortality is increased in obesity. Infact, a BMI of over 32 is associated with a doubled risk of death! This kind of BMI alters the body's response to insulin and increases the tendency to a prothrombotic state.

Mmale-type or waist-predominant obesity is characterised by a high waist-hip ratio and is an important risk factor for the clustering of a number of diseases and risk factors connected with cardiovascular disease.

Most research reveals that the combination of excessive nutrient intake and sedentary lifestyle is the main cause for obesity in Western society. Despite the widespread awareness, it is evident that overeating remains a problem.

An increasingly sedentary lifestyle also plays a role in the onset of obesity and so does a well established and possibly underinvestigated life style. These are characterized by insufficient sleep, intake of food substances that interfere with lipid metabolism, decreased rates of smoking that invariably suppresses appetite, increased use of medication and pregnancy at a later age.

The calorific imbalance that results in obesity is determined to be the result of a number of related genetic and environmental factors. There are polymorphisms in various genes that control appetite and metabolism. Various genetic conditions that feature obesity have been identified.

On a population level, there are certain ethnic groups that are more prone to obesity than others. Individuals with greater adipose reserves are more likely to survive famine. Mental illnesses also increase obesity risk, like eating disorders.
The role of bacteria in the digestive tract in the development of obesity is also being investigated. Bacteria participate in digestion and hence, alterations in the proportion of particular strains could explain the cause.

When income differentials are factored, it is observed that thin subjects were inherit more wealth. A higher rate of a lower level of education also plays a significant role. It is also observed that women married into higher status are predictably thinner than women married into the lower strata.

It’s Not Your Fault if You’re Fat: It’s a Virus!

First we were blaming our friends. Recent studies revealed that social connectivity could cause close friends to become fat together.

Now there’s even more proof that fat really is contagious.

Researchers from the Pennington Center in Louisiana presented their findings this week at the American Chemical Society conference.

Dr. Magdalena Pasarica, the lead author of the study, said that a particular type of adenovirus called AD-36, which causes respiratory infections in humans, may also be responsible for turning stem cells into fat cells.

Pasarica and her team examined stem cells which were isolated from fat removed in liposuction operations. They exposed some stem cells to the virus and left others alone. After a period of time, the stem cells infected with AD-36 developed into fat cells, while the others did not.

"We’re not saying that a virus is the only cause of obesity," said Dr. Pasarica at the conference. "But this study provides stronger evidence that some obesity cases may involve viral infections."

The research team stated that the findings offer hope for treating obesity, as anti-viral drugs may have some effect on the fat cells infected with the virus. However, in animal studies involving AD-36, mice stayed obese for as long as six months after the infection had been cleared.

Pasarica added that not all people infected with AD-36 would develop obesity. Also not addressed was the fact that the stem cells studied came from the fatty tissue of people who may have already been obese – since most naturally lean folks don’t have liposuction.

Some experts expressed little patience for the findings, stating that the last thing people need is another excuse for why they are overweight.

"A vaccine won’t stop people from eating the food put in front of them at fancy restaurants," said Dr. David Haslam of the National Obesity Forum, to reporters. "It isn’t going to change people’s lifestyle. Even if a tiny part of obesity is caused by a virus, the food you put in your mouth and the activity you don’t do is the key."

Obesity is Contagious, New Study Says

Now our fat friends have something new to worry about.

According to researchers who studied a group of over 12,000 people for more than 32 years, one of the most significant determining factors of obesity is one’s close friends.

The study shows that the influence of a mutual friendship can create an environment in which the friends mirror each other’s behavior and lifestyle—even if they don’t live near each other.

And while the authors do not claim that an actual virus causes obesity, they do emphasize the social "contagion" factor. James Fowler, a political science professor at the University of California, San Diego and co-author of the NEJM study, told reporters, "This is the first [study] to show how obesity spreads through the social network from person to person to person."

"It has become very popular to speak of the obesity epidemic. We began to wonder if it is truly an epidemic," said Dr. Nicholas Christakis, who co-authored the study with Fowler. Dr. Christakis is a medical sociology professor at Harvard Medical School.

The report documented that if a person became obese, his or her friends had a 57 percent higher chance of becoming obese also. If the friendship was a close one and considered mutual by both parties, that risk jumped to 171 percent.

This is a higher risk than that from living with an obese spouse or sibling, leading the researchers to conclude that close relationships were more important in determining weight than genetics (as with a sibling) or in sharing daily lifestyle habits (as with a spouse). When a spouse gained weight, the other spouse had a 37 percent increased risk of becoming overweight. If a man got fat, his brother was 40 percent more likely to do so too.

Fowler and Christakis used the data from over 12,000 people involved in the Framingham health study. The Framingham health study is a long-term analysis of the health habits of people living in Framingham, Massachusetts, which began in 1948. This study used records dating between 1971 and 2003.

What surprised the authors was the fact that close friends continued to be a strong influence even if they did not live near each other. "We were stunned to find that people who were hundreds of miles away had just as much impact on a person’s weight as friends who are next door. This is not due to people eating or exercising together," said Fowler to reporters.

By using such a long-term study, they were able to rule out the idea that overweight people simply chose other friends who were obese—the study tracked friendships from as far back as childhood, where the friends began at different weights.

The conclusion echoes other findings that have attached a contagion-like aspect to certain eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia.

"What spreads is an idea. As people around you gain weight, your attitudes about what constitutes an acceptable body size changes, and you might follow suit and emulate that body size," said Christakis to reporters. "It may cross some kind of threshold, and you can see an epidemic take off. Once it starts, it’s hard to stop it. It can spread like wildfire."

Indeed, the study showed that the "contagion" could spread from one friendship to another. If a person became overweight as a result of the close friendship, their other friends were also at increased risk of getting fat.

Experts weighing in were optimistic about finding a "cure" for the epidemic. "If close social environments can promote a disease, they can also promote solutions to the disease," William H. Dietz of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said to the press. "These same social networks might be used to turn a disease like obesity around."

So if you blame your friend for making you fat, don’t ditch her just yet. The two of you could just as easily influence each other to healthier habits.

Newest Diet News: Spray Away Obesity

Obviously the best way to lose weight and fight habits that cause you to overeat is to teach your mind not to want to eat, right? Doing that is next to impossible with there being so much attention paid to food in America. Just walk through the mall on any given afternoon and your senses will be assaulted by the appetizing aromas of pizza parlors, cinnamon bun shops, and freshly baked cookies—and that’s not even counting the tantalizing smells in the food court. And once you get your first nibble of something delicious, it’s nearly impossible to stop until everything has been nibbled away.

One company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, thinks it has the answer to finally being able to stifle your interest in food—and that answer will come in a little spray bottle. Compellis Pharmaceuticals was awarded a patent for a nasal spray designed to fight obesity by blocking the senses of smell and taste, and the company plans to begin human trials next year.

Christopher Adams, the company’s founder and chief, told Reuters that the premise behind the product, known as CP404, is a simple one, since the pleasurable effect of eating is all stimulated by smell and taste. "The premise is that olfactory activity that controls both smell and taste is a trigger and a feedback mechanism to eat. If you have some kind of reduced sense of smell or taste, you tend to eat less," he said.

CP404 is just the latest suggestion in the arsenal of devices and treatments under development around the world. French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis has already begun marketing its new obesity pill Acomplia, which switches off the same circuits in the brain that make people hungry when they get high on marijuana. Medtronic, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of medical devices, is developing a battery-powered gastric pacemaker that will cause the stomach to send signals of fullness to the appetite center of the brain. And Minneapolis-based Enteromedics, Inc., is working with the Mayo Clinic to fine-tune a device that uses electricity to paralyze the stomach, reducing the contractions that help to digest food so it stays in the stomach longer.

The Compellis nasal spray is years away from reaching consumers, but Adams is planning to begin human trials next year and hopes to seek FDA approval about three years later. The spray treatment would retail at about $500 to $1,000 a year.