06-22-2008, 04:14 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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| Miss Mod Nichole
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 6,724
Money: 21,505 My Mood:  Points: 46,340, Level: 52 | | Interesting article
I just stumbled upon this article, I don't know if it's true or not, but it's interesting nonetheless. Australian Bellies Bulge Past America's - Forbes.com Quote:
HONG KONG -
The astonishing speed with which Australians are adding weight has enabled the country to clam an unsavory title: fattest country among the world's major economies.
Quietly but surely, more than a quarter of the Australian adult population, 26% of its 15.1 million, has become obese, compared with 25% in the United States, according to a comprehensive survey, titled "Australia’s Future Fat Bomb," released Friday by the Melbourne-based Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute. That would put Australia, a nation associated in the popular imagination with sports and outdoor activity, ahead of America as the world's fattest major country.
The percentage translates into almost 4 million people. Add another 5.4 million Australians who are overweight, and nearly 62% of the Australian adult population is above the threshold of a desirable weight range, a staggering figure.
"If there was a fat Olympics, we would be the gold medal nation," Simon Stewart, head of preventative cardiology at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, was quoted by The Age as saying. "Every American I have met visiting Australia in the last couple of months says, 'Gee, you've overtaken us. You have more fat Australians than we have fat Americans,' and they are right."
Only last year, Australia was well behind the United States in the world index of fattest countries.
The latest results show Australia adding 1 million obese adults since the last such comprehensive survey was done, in 1999. The middle-aged cohort, between 45 and 64, is at particularly high risk. Seven out of 10 men, and six out of 10 women, in this age range are either overweight or obese. The institute estimated that the expansion of middle-aged waistlines will result in an extra 700,000 hospital admissions owing to cardiovascular-related diseases, for a total additional health care cost of 6 billion Australian dollars ($5.71 billion).
The survey identifies adult males, children, indigenous Australians and those lower on the socioeconomic scale, particularly those from rural and regional areas of Australia, as most at risk. These various groups commonly tend to indulge in overconsumption of food while engaging in less physical activity.
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