World obesity, 800 million starving
High-sugar sodas like these can lead to diabetes, which now affects one in seven Mexicans. Photo: Steve McFarland
Scientific American’s John Rennie on the 21st century paradox of feast and famine.
Widespread hunger along with widespread overabundance mark these early years of the 21st century.
That’s according to a special Fall 2007 issue of the magazine Scientific American devoted to food and health. Here’s editor-and-chief, John Rennie:
John Rennie: The odd thing is that these days, there’s probably as much obesity and overweight in a lot of the developing world as there is in the industrialized world. At the same time, we still do have 800 million people in the world who are slowly starving because they are not getting enough to eat.
Rennie said that about one in five people on Earth is overweight. There’s an explosion of high-calorie foods, such as sugary beverages, which are now more easily available to people across the globe.
And the report also talks about the spread of unhealthy diets more common to rich parts of the world, now causing a spread of diabetes worldwide. For example, diabetes was almost nonexistant in Mexico 15 years ago, but now it affects one in seven people there
John Rennie: It was a disease of affluence. But these days, it’s one of the fastest rising health problems in the developing world.
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Selected articles from the special Fall 2007 issue of Scientific American devoted to food and health.
Eating Made Simple
How do you cope with a mountain of conflicting diet advice? By Marion Nestle.
Can Fat Be Fit?
A well-publicized study and a spate of popular books raise questions about the ill effects of being overweight. Their conclusions are probably wrong. By Paul Raeburn.
This is Your Brain on Food
Neuroimaging reveals a shared basis for chocoholia and drug addiction. By Kristin Leutwyler Ozelli.
Our thanks to:
John Rennie
Editor-in-Chief
Scientific American Magazine
New York, NY
The human race is a weak race.