One of the things I hate about obesity are statistics. It's practically impossible to put a figure on how many people are obese, as the definition and measurement techniques are not standardized.

I've discussed BMI and the issues with it before, but two new studies today show how silly trying to drill down to actual numbers can be for those in charge. 

The first study that really cuts to the heart of the matters comes from Australia. Their childhood obesity rates have been steadily rising, but they've found that the wrong criteria was applied. 

I came across a fascinating report entitled, "F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America, 2008." Produced by the Trust for America's Health, it's stuffed full with interesting statistics and ideas. What I wanted to do was take a few posts and work through their list of 10 ideas to combat obesity. 

The interesting thing about this organization is that they appear to be independent and not under the influence of any group. Looking through their list of directors you'll see Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.

I have no idea.

The reason I started digging into this is that Vermont Governor Jim Douglas is going to attack obesity, according to an article in the Burlington Free Press. I don't know if they have a paid press. I couldn't resist. 

I hate relying on the media for quotes; I like going to the source. In this case I went to the governor's press site and found nothing. I then went to the Vermont Department of Health site and found nothing. I looked back on the governor's initiative page and found nothing. I'm left with the news article.

The news today that Pepsi is going to use video games to combat obesity in Mexico made me pause. No, it's not that a HFC factory like Pepsi thinks a video games can combat childhood obesity. It was the fact there is a Mexican obesity problem. I would have thought that obesity wouldn't be an issue for Mexicans, but it turns out it is. 

According to an article in the Guardian Unlimited, Mexico has a big problem. I dug into this further and found the INSP, which is the Mexican equivilant to our CDC. I don't speak Spanish, but between the article and the site I found these statistics:

Time Magazine does a year end review with many lists. They bust them up into single pages in an effort to increase pageviews, so getting through them is hard. Luckily, I came across one of their lists, 2007 Underreported Stories, and found something related to obesity.

Time lists as the number seven underreported story the fact that obesity levels in American adults has leveled off or dropped between 2003-2006. You would think the media would be all over this, but you would be wrong.

I came across two news articles recently. Take a look at the first and second one. Now, let's take a look at what they say about obesity statistics.

The first article:

According to CDC, one-third of U.S. residents are obese, and two-thirds are overweight or obese

The second article:

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 64.5 percent of adult Americans are overweight or obese.

Now, you might think, "No big deal. They are two different groups giving statistics."

Ok, so now the obesity freak out by the media has officially gone crazy. On a continent that is dealing with an AIDs crisis, shortages of food and a lack of stable governments, the media is now saying they have an obesity problem. 

Yes, that continent is Africa.

Ok, shake yourself out of that stupor. The continent is under a stage 1 obesity alert. I mean, just listen to Krisela Steyn, a retired director of the South African Medical Research Council's Chronic Disease and Lifestyle unit:

We have gone from undernutrition to overnutrition without ever having passed healthy nutrition.

Obesity is becoming a factor in many nations around the world. The latest obesity statistics have been released for India and they are as follows:

75 percent of Indian women are obese

58 percent of Indian men are obese.

The statistics are skewed as they only seem to count the abdominal obesity, as if there is a real difference.

The survey was sponsored by the International Day of Evaluation of Abdominal Obesity. Dr Anoop Misra says, "The most important contributors are abdominal obesity and fat in the liver. Both are genetically determined. Interestingly Indian babies, which are born low birth fate, have high body fat, high fat under the skin and have a lot of metabolic problems starting at the birth which later on will develop into major and deadly diseases."