[Stampede2TheCup]

Originally Posted by kipperfan

What I don't understand is why the rate of obesity is so much less in Asia? You can argue some countries (Pakistan, India, China, etc.) would be low due to high poverty rates in large parts of those countries, but what about economically successful Asian nations like Japan and South Korea? How is it that those two countries can have obesity rates around 3% when Canada is at 14% and USA close to 25%? Those are huge differences and I simply don't understand why, if obesity is nothing more then an illness, or a symptom of a greater problem, so many more North American's become obese?

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/he...health-obesity

The difference is from better diet and more active lifestyle (especially a lot more physical labour) but that's been changing lately as they're catching up economically.

Rapid economic development and the shift from an active, agricultural lifestyle to a sedentary, urban lifestyle are the main factors to blame for Asia's burgeoning weight problem, Mr Zimmet and Mr Gill said.

As their economies had grown, many Asian countries that were once agriculturally self-sufficient had begun importing high-fat, high-calorie foods that were never a major part of their traditional diets.

In China, for example, the per capita consumption of vegetable oil had increased from around 1 litre per year to 17 litres in the past two decades, Mr Gill said. "It's a fairly dramatic increase and with that there's got to be a lot of extra calories," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006...thandwellbeing