Obesity: A Growing Problem in China

Abstract

Obesity is defined as excessive body fat accumulated to the extent that presents a risk to health. A measure of obesity is the
body mass index (BMI), a person’s weight (in kilograms) divided by
the square of the person’s height (in meters). A person with a BMI
of 30 or over is generally considered obese, and a BMI of 25 or
over considered overweight.1
Obesity is a major risk factor for chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Obesity also damages productivity. Obese people move slower and are sick from
work more often due to complications of diabetes and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Obesity was once considered a
problem only in high-income countries, and now, however, it is
dramatically increasing in developing countries.1
Unfortunately,
at present, nearly one-third of the world’s population is obese or
overweight, i.e., 2.1 billion