Mexico leaves US behind for fatness index

America is no longer that world’s fattest major country on Earth. According to a United Nations report, Mexico are the new kings of the calories. The report blames Mexican's expanding waistlines on a combination of rising incomes and rampant consumption. With almost 50 percent of Mexico’s population considered poor, it is the malnourished that are becoming obese.
Diabetes and cardiovascular illnesses are on the increase, plus sizes clothing fills the racks in stores and Mexicans keep eating.

The crisis disproportionately hits the poor and the young. Weight-related diabetes claims the most Mexican lives each year, with nearly one of every six Mexican adults suffering from the disease.

Heart and related ailments round out the list of the country's top killers.

'The same people who are malnourished are the ones who are becoming obese,' said physician Abelardo Avila with Mexico's National Nutrition Institute.

'In the poor classes we have obese parents and malnourished children. The worst thing is the children are becoming programmed for obesity. It's a very serious epidemic.'

About 70 percent of Mexican adults are considered overweight; 32.8 percent are obese. But the U.S. isn't far behind panting to a second place finish with an obesity rate of 31.8 percent. Less than a month ago, the American Medical Association classified obesity as a disease. Mexico blames increasingly industrialized agricultural production for a worldwide epidemic of both obesity and malnutrition. Sally Neiman who has lived in Mexico for 20 years says the new title doesn't come as too much of a surprise.

'Because of a lack of money and food, people go for more energy-intense foods. These are often high in sugar or fat. People drink Coca Cola as if it was water in order to have the energy to carry on - and so many of the foods are rich in carbs, are full of cheese or are fried.'
'There is no control in schools to what kids eat this days, it is normal to see a kid having a soda for breakfast and eating 'comida chatarra' (junk food), it is allowed to be sold in schools.'
Experts have been warning about the growing obesity problem for years.

President Enrique Peña Nieto has launched a National Crusade Against Hunger, aimed at reducing 'food insecurity' for some 7.4 million Mexicans.

Most of the people targeted live in the more impoverished south of the country, where indigenous rural communities have been especially hit by malnutrition accompanied by cases of obesity. Anti-poverty programs often end up putting cash into rural families' hands that is simply spent on fried snacks and sodas rather than nutritious foods.

Much also has to do with what Mexicans wittily call Vitamin T foods — the tacos, tamales and tostadas that anchor their diet.

Once reserved for special occasions, the carbohydrate and lard-loaded dishes now get eaten on a daily basis.


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