Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain have all ranked among the world’s top 10 fattest nations with obesity rates expected to severely affect global food security, a new report has said.
The average person in Kuwait, the second fattest country in the world behind the United States, weighs in at approximately 77.5 kg, 15.5kg heavier than the global average, according to a research report published by BMC Public Health.
Gas-rich Qatar was ranked third globally with the average adult consuming just over 3000 calories per day, followed by the UAE in fifth place (3017 calories) and Bahrain in 10th position (2889 calories).
The world’s adult population is getting increasingly fatter. The global population estimated to weigh a combined 287 million tonnes, 17 million tonnes of which is due to people being overweight, according to the research.
The rising number of obese people in the world will affect the world’s resources as much as another billion people would, causing a “major threat” to food security, scientists warned.
“Increasing biomass will have important implications for global resource requirements, including food demand, and the overall ecological footprint of our species,” said the report.
“Our scenarios suggest that global trends of increasing body mass will have important resource implications and that unchecked, increasing BMI could have the same implications for world energy requirements as an extra 473 million people. Tackling population fatness may be critical to world food security and ecological sustainability,” it added.
Despite only making up five per cent of the world’s population, the United States accounts for almost one third of the world’s weight due to obesity. In contrast, Asia has just 61 percent of the world’s population but only 13 percent of the world’s weight.
North Korea was ranked the world’s slimmest nation with an average weight of 49.5kg based on consumption of 2,342 calories per day. Nepal followed in second place, ahead of Sri Lanka and Vietnam at third and fourth place, respectively.
