Rich people in developing countries are bearing the heaviest brunt of the obesity epidemic, suggests a new study.
In 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 1.6 billion adults, ages 15 and older, were overweight and at least 400 million adults were obese.
Writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Harvard researchers found developing nations’ wealthy citizens were more likely to be obese than poor people, which is in stark contrast to U.S. trends, where lower income individuals tend to be fatter.
The WHO projects that by 2015, approximately 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and over 700 million adults will be obese.
For the study, researchers identified trends in the weights of more than half a million women across 54 developing countries between 1994 and 2008 and found people ranking in the top 25% of the population based on wealth had more than double the risk of being overweight, compared to the bottom 25%.
Researchers speculate that food is cheaper and easier for wealthy populations to afford and more upscale neighborhoods also have more restaurants.
But despite the obesity issues, the scientists found a significant portion of the population still suffered from being underweight.
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