More people on the planet are now obese than underweight
Shocking new research has revealed more people are now overweight than underweight across the globe.
People are putting on weight up at such a rate that by 2025, roughly a fifth of the human race will be obese, according to experts.
From 1975 to 2014 research shows the number of men and women in the world classified as obese soared from 105 million to 641 million.
With each passing decade, the average person had become 1.5kg (3.3 pounds) heavier.
If this trend continues, scientists predict 18% of men and 21% of women worldwide will be obese by the year 2025.
Professor Majid Ezzati, from Imperial College London, who led the research said:
Over the past 40 years, we have changed from a world in which underweight prevalence was more than double that of obesity, to one in which more people are obese than underweight.
If present trends continue, not only will the world not meet the obesity target of halting the rise in the prevalence of obesity at its 2010 level by 2025, but more women will be severely obese than underweight by 2025.
To avoid an epidemic of severe obesity, new policies that can slow down and stop the worldwide increase in body weight must be implemented quickly and rigorously evaluated, including smart food policies and improved health-care training.''