Over past three decades. obesity rates increased fourfold among children and doubled among adults

More than 1 billion people worldwide are now living with obesity, with rates among children increasing fourfold across a 32-year period, according to new research.

Analysis of the weight and height measurements of over 220 million people from more than 190 countries shows how body mass index (BMI) changed across the world between 1990 and 2022.

Approximately 1,500 researchers contributed to the study by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO). Published in the Lancet, it found that over the period obesity rates increased fourfold among children, and doubled among adults.

  • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    For years now, people have been blaming an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, but that’s always seemed like convenient BS to me. People were not significantly more active 60 years ago compared to today. At least not to the extent that would explain the explosion in obesity rates. Most families still had cars and would still drive 5 minutes rather than walk 20.

    It’s definitely something with the food. HFCS or other additives are the likely culprit. I feel like all the messages that it’s just because of poor diet and lack of exercise is propaganda from the food industries to deflect blame from themselves and put it on individuals. Like yea, eating healthy and working out will absolutely help keep weight off. But the point is, people didn’t seem to have to watch their food intake or work out as much in the past.

    They feed us poison and blame us for the results.

    • jmp242@sopuli.xyz
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      8 months ago

      Common industry trope - same with climate change EVs vs industrial processes. We keep asking 7.9 billion people to attack the 5% or less left of an issue that maybe they with full collective action could dent, while just pretending that nothing can be done by the IDK 100,000 people running the industrial processes responsible for like 70% of the problem.

      I swear, it’s the latte / avocado toast financial advice. Yes, if I drop $100-$200 a month habit it’ll make up for the $4,000 a month unsustainable living expenses.

    • htrayl@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      What. No. We drive far more, and have more cars. In 1960 nearly a quarter of households didn’t even have a car. Now that is only 10%.

      Here is a study on occupational movement, which has decreased significantly (100 kcal a day - which is roughly a pound bodyweight energy lost per month).

      In addition, people had far more incidental and leisure movement - considering that hours of TV watched nearly doubled.

      Of course, our trash diet is a huge aspect, and probably the lions share - but the lack of movement is not insignificant

    • Rakonat@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Partially right on the food but absolutely wrong on lifestyle changes over the last few decades. Specifically we are talking youth here, in western countries but evidence also supports places like China with more and more youth neglecting exercise and sports to stay inside and consume digital entertainment instead that only compounds with increasingly unhealthy dietary choices. Increasing sugar and carb intake while neglecting other nutrients and vitamins. Both factors are bad on their own but the effect is multiplicitive when combined. And a third factor with the subculture pushing obese acceptance and trying to present overweight people as being just as healthy as those pursuing atheltic and active lifestyles makes people who have fallen into the trap of sedentary lifestyle eating unhealthy foods regularly even less likely to try and change and improve themself, many people giving up cause its hard to break free of something they know and gives them comfort, even if its literally killing them slowly.

    • mctoasterson@reddthat.com
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      8 months ago

      Its both. In developed countries kids are playing Fortnite, watching streamers on Twitch etc. and pinging their friends on social media vs. every decade up until the early 2000s, where kids essentially went outside all day anytime they weren’t in school. In the US, dozens of dietary factors are also to blame. Subsidized corn, poor nutrition education, ubiquity of fast food and fast casual restaurants, snack food marketing around social events like holidays and the Super Bowl, advent of food delivery apps, growth of the “body positivity” movement etc. are all reasons people have trended toward obesity.

    • lud@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Do you have any sources whatsoever or are you just making stuff up because you just dislike “they”.

      Of course people didn’t have to watch their intake as much earlier. Food is unhealthier and more plentiful than ever.

      Btw, why shouldn’t “they” blame you? It’s your own damn body. Of course the industry should be regulated more but that also applies to every industry.