A Picture of Obesity Around the World

Go USA Go !

A very interesting chart. It belies the argument that obesity is the price of prosperity. Three of the top 5 are struggling - one is seriously struggling.

Eight years ago La Repubblica had an article on the growing BMI in the European Union. I was surprised by the article because it said that Germany and the U.K. had overtaken the US, and Italy was number 4. This graphic indicates otherwise, but it's looking at the percentages at the high end of the curve.

So, I went back to the source data of this poster, which is the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). From this data (which, the OECD warns, is not uniformly collected and therefore probably not great for such comparisons), in terms of overweight and obese, the order is US (66.3%), UK (63%), Mexico (62.3%), Canada (57.5%), Greece (57.1%), New Zealand (56.2%). Germany is 49.2% and Italy is 42.6%. By constructing this list, I had to compare self-collected data from 2000 (Mexico) with sampled data from 2004 (US). So, I agree with the OECD: you should take this data with many grains of salt. And, from the combined data, everybody is getting pretty pudgy (Finland hs gone from 36.3% in 1981 to 49.2% in 2005; Netherlands from 33.3% to 46.4%; Japan from 19.7% to 24.9%).

There's a lot of data here to mine (and, probably, abuse)...

That is a really interesting visual. Not necessarily 100% accurate (based on Quito's numbers), but good enough to give a quick picture of the issues and make you think! This would be a great display for the average doctor's office...

TheMorbidMe said:
Go USA Go !

Thanks for giving me a good laugh! :-)

Susanna said:
Three of the top 5 are struggling - one is seriously struggling.

I have a problem with Mexican food too: Damn tasty - damn carbohydrates! :)

Rice, beans, corn... Wheat, potatoes, millet, soy...

The rich have access to more food, but the poor have access to poorer food.

Susan said:
TheMorbidMe said: Go USA Go ! Yeah!!! We're Number One! We're Number One! Thanks for giving me a good laugh! :-)[...]

yeah, thanks for the giggles

Quito said:
Eight years ago La Repubblica had an article on the growing BMI in the European Union. I was surprised by the article because it said that Germany and the U.K. had overtaken the US, and Italy was number 4. This graphic indicates otherwise, but it's looking at the percentages at the high end of the curve.[...]

Of course, this chart shows only obese (BMI over 30), and your numbers show "overweight and obese"-- could account for some difference

Heather said:
Of course, this chart shows only obese (BMI over 30), and your numbers show "overweight and obese"-- could account for some difference[...]

What I was going to say....the % classified "obese" (BMI >30) is accurate in the poster and doesn't reflect (nor do I think it was intending to) the population that is overweight but not obese.

Thank you for linking to my site.

-Grey

That's an amusing pictorial. The top line looks like a bunch of fat bugs. The bottom line looks like stick figures by the end. But at least the bottom line looks like a representation of people. This is one competition where I wish the US was NOT #1.

Regina, Heather - I agree that the difference is between "obese" and "overweight". i think the difference in the ordering is itself interesting. And, I encourage you to look at the source data. A problem with any graphic - or summary - is that it hides the issues with the meaning of the data.

Kallish - I must be missing something ^_^ but isn't the Japanese diet, like the Mexican diet, high in carbohydrates? In Japan, sashimi is not an everyday dish.

perhaps it's the way in which the carbohydrates are prepared. a lot of mexican dishes require that you deep fry things in oil or cook things with lard or top things off with a lot of cheese.

speaking from my korean background and knowledge of korean and japanese cuisine, koreans and japanese alike dont use a lot of fat in preparing dishes, so their diet, although high in carbohydrates, tends to be low in fat (and keep in mind that 1gram of carb = 4 cal, 1gram of fat = 9 cal).

Woo Canada! ;)

The Slovak Republic in fourth place ? Then why do I feel like such a fat lump every time I go there ? Where are they hiding the fat people ? I agree the UK should be right up there (I'm one of those contributing to its high placement) but Slovakia ?

Sigh, I am a fat American living in Korea, no wonder I hate them. Ok, not all the time, just when I'm hormonal.