By Lyse Barronville
Most developing countries aim for one thing: to be more like the United States and other more industrialized countries. However, it is easily forgettable that with these industrialized countries also come with their own kinds of problems; reminding us that the grass is not always greener on the other side. A major problem experienced by these countries, especially the United States is the obesity epidemic. Until fairly recently people did not realize that consuming too much food (and being over-nourished for that matter) is not necessarily better than malnutrition. Currently, developing countries are still dying from what industrialized countries consider “ancient diseases”. Things like tuberculosis and cholera, acute infectious diseases usually associated with extreme poverty, are not diseases people casually worry about in America (besides diseasess such as sexually transmitted diseases, influenza, and other less morbid diseases). However, we still have many chronic health issues to worry about, many of which are connected to overweight and obesity. Apparently, as developing countries get richer, they begin to assimilate in the lifestyles of industrialized countries. This would normally be a great thing, but the problem is that these countries now have to deal with obesity and other similar health issues even though they have not gotten rid of “ancient diseases” yet
National Public Radio (NPR) ran an article on January 3rd, 2014 titled: “Overweight People In Developing World Outnumber Those In Rich Countries.” Obesity is a major risk factor to many other diseases including type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, hypertension, some cancers, gallstones, osteoarthritis, and obstructive sleep apnoea. As ridiculous as it may seem today, there once was no maximum to caloric intake in industrialized countries. During those times, undernourishment was a major problem so in an attempt to diminish this, food became more available and minimum caloric intakes were most people’s focus. In the end, this created a new unforeseen problem, overweight and obesity, which we struggle to hopefully reverse. As history repeats itself, developing countries are improving their standards and slowly moving towards this same pattern. In many of these countries, there is an idea that healthy means “having meat on your bones”. Chubbier children are somewhat more likely to be seen as healthy and no one discourages overeating, especially since this can also be a sign of better income. Though obesity is not a problem for most of these societies at the moment, it is worrisome that tomorrow, they could be dealing with obesity on a higher scale as well. The NPR article states that: “Mexico, for instance, which Wiggins calls a “poster child” for the global obesity problem. “If you walk into a Mexican village store,” he says, “you’ll be confronted with lots of tasty offerings of potato chips, nice cookies with lots of fat and sugar in them and lots of sweetened carbonated drinks — all kinds of stuff, which is terrific in small quantities, but not when you start to eat it in large quantities.” In 1980, less than 40 percent of Mexican women were overweight. By 2008, almost 70 percent were.” It is ridiculous that this is obesity is becoming a global issue and it needs to be stopped while we are still able to. This issue can be easily solved with changes in diet, but no one wants to be told what they should or shouldn’t be doing with the small amount of disposable income they are finally getting. It just goes to show you another issue with globalization and that more money really does equate to more problems.
Reference:
Beaubien, Jason. “Overweight People In Developing World Outnumber Those In Rich Countries.” NPR. NPR, 3 Jan. 2014. Web. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/01/02/259115022/overweight-people-in-developing-world-outnumber-those-in-rich-countries>.
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