Globesity: Fat’s New Frontier reveals the outrageous eruption of a worldwide corpulence in countries where not so long ago famine was number one health issue. In China the usage of sugar and oil has led to rapid enlargement of waistlines; in Brazil global food companies have basically changed the usual daily intakes of food and sent the national scales spinning. In India it’s anticipated that 100 million people will have diabetes in the near future and in Mexico, the largest consumer of carbonated beverage in the world, where diabetes is already a headline killer and where the weight problem is so acute, special programs have been made available offering free fitness classes and bariatric surgery. If you thought obesity was just an issue in the first world economies, like the US, UK and Australia, this documentary will set you straight. The fatness of the world is changing in ways that will amaze and possibly even disturb you. In the recent past, in many of the world’s impoverished corners, hunger was the main health concern. Assessments put the number of underweight at 700 million, and overweight – mainly in affluent countries – at 100 million. How the tables have turned. In truth, no country has succeeded to eliminate the hunger without shifting to corpulence, very quickly. Among poor and developing countries, there’s not a single one, from sub-Saharan Africa to South Africa to the Middle East to Asia and Latin America, which has regulated this difficulty. By 2010 the number of underweight people had increased only slightly but the number of very overweight people had blown up to 500 million. It’s estimated that by 2030 more than one billion will be fat. We have dumped the concern of obesity into the developing economies just at a time when the numbers were starting to level off. This is a global problem and every country on the planet should be worried about it. You can also watch the documentary at ABC Australia.
