U! S! A!—We're Number Two! (In Obesity)
07/09/2013
A+
|
a-
Print Friendly and PDF

But Schumer and Rubio have a plan to fix that.

The Awesomest Newspaper on Earth reports:

Mexico takes over from the U.S. as the fattest nation on earth, according to UN report

Around 70 percent of Mexican adults are now classified as overweight ...

Only 10 per cent overweight in 1989 - before fast food was widely available

The young and poor are the worst-affected groups

By OLIVIA WILLIAMS

Daily Mail, July 8, 2013
The U.S. has finally lost its dubious honour of having the world's highest number of overweight and obese people.

Fuelled by a worsening diet of fizzy drinks and cheap fast food restaurants, Mexico has now become the fattest nation in the world.

Around 70 per cent of Mexican adults are now overweight and a third of them are obese, causing a range of serious health problems. ...

Mexico may still be battling malnutrition and hunger among some of its poor but now it is also managing to claim the largest number of overweight people, according to a UN report.

The fat epidemic is most prominent among the poor and the young - many of whom also suffer from malnourishment because of poor diet.

Part of the difficulty is that the crisis has taken hold rapidly - In 1989, fewer than 10 percent of Mexican adults had any weight problems. ...

This year was the first time Mexico has inched ahead into first place, with a 32.8 per cent obesity rate to America's 31.8 per cent.

However, this was only among the most populated countries of the world.

Both Mexico and the U.S. have nothing on the small countries such as American Samoa in the Pacific where the rate of overweight inhabitants has now reached 95 per cent.

LEAGUE TABLE OF OBESE NATIONS
Mexico - 32.8 per cent
United States - 31.8 per cent
Syria - 31.6 per cent
Venezuela, Libya - 30.8 per cent
Trinidad & Tobago - 30.0 per cent
Vanuatu - 29.8 per cent
Iraq, Argentina - 29.4 per cent
Turkey - 29.3 per cent
Chile - 29.1 per cent
Czech Republic - 28.7 per cent
Lebanon - 28.2 per cent
New Zealand, Slovenia - 27.0 per cent
El Salvador - 26.9 per cent
Malta - 26.6 per cent
Panama, Antigua - 25.8 per cent
Israel - 25.5 per cent
Australia, Saint Vincent - 25.1 per cent
Dominica - 25.0 per cent
UK, Russia - 24.9 per cent
Hungary - 24.8 per cent 


This is, on the whole, a pretty cruddy list of countries that Mexico and America rule over: No Norway, while Syria, Libya, and Venezuela are third through fifth. Take that, ghost of Hugo Chavez!

Remember when George W. Bush announced in his third debate with John Kerry in 2004 on the subject of illegal immigrants: "you're going to come here if you're worth your salt, if you want to put food on the table for your families"? Much of the discussion of immigration seems to be predicated on the American ruling class's assumption that Mexicans are this close to starvation.

For more evidence that the U.S. if falling behind and can only retake its rightful place at the top by importing more folks from the Global South, see this table. Fans of The Wire will be ashamed that Baltimore's down to #48 in the world.
Print Friendly and PDF