More than half of the world will be overweight or obese by 2035: report

And the most obscene thing is that more than half of the world will soon be taking (yet another) pill that will allow them to keep eating the utter junk that now passes as food and to lose weight at the same time. Big pharma, the food conglomerates and their lobbyists have created a truly sick society.

And the most obscene thing is that more than half of the world will soon be taking (yet another) pill that will allow them to keep eating the utter junk that now passes as food and to lose weight at the same time.

There is no reason to think pharmaceutical options are going to become the first line for treatment of obesity, specially because the greatest increases will come on countries with people with low access to new medications.

As mentioned the focus is on the many different factors that promote obesity, controlling those factors means also reducing the burned of the problem on public health, this would be completely unnecessary if everything could just be solved with a pill.

A lot of this is overrated and can be read many ways. Being overweight and obese is not good but I was obese as a child and I'm still overweight by their standards. However, I can do more pushups and situps than the young female staff in my office who happen to be less than half my age. I've averaged over 100 minutes per day of physical activity every day for the past 25 years. Three years ago at my health check, the doctor got on me about my weight. I told him I was in better shape than he was and the next year he didn't mention it. My new female doctor didn't say anything last year but I like it when someone spouts off at the mouth. Japanese love talking down about being fat but when I show them what real fitness is they run away. Plenty of NFL guys can outrun these chicken legs I see on the street. Weight is one thing but you CAN be fat AND fit!

I became badly overweight after my cancer op, and also the covid stay-ins. But so far this year I have lost 2 kg. Another 10 or so to go.

Just had my regular three monthly check-ups and all points on the blood test are lower or normal.

I don't see it happening in Japan, Korea, China, and many other Asian countries. Everyone is slim despite good food everywhere you look.

I remember my father, who visited many poor countries in his lifetime, saying he found something immoral about obesity after seeing kids with arms and legs like matchsticks.

Not a good thing.

This is what happens when people load up on sugary and/or heavily processed foods. They're OK to indulge in here and there, but when they become a standard part of someone's daily food intake, this is the result. Nobody is forcing us to eat that garbage - it's up to parents of children, schools that provide lunches, and adults themselves to decide what they eat. If they decided not to eat the junk, the market would adapt away from such food, and in many cases businesses have popped up to cater for that market.

Over and above the obvious dangers of obesity is the false promise of a so-called obesity pill, which will make people think they can eat whatever they like and still lose weight. But there's no such thing as a miracle cure, and who knows what the side effects could be down the track.

More than half of the world will be overweight or obese by 2035: report

Im not surprised with all the meat that people are eating, full of hormones and anti-biotics...which both fuel Cancer.

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Seeing more overweight people all the time.

Seeing more overweight people all the time.

I hear you. I see it more and more when I go back to my home country.

I don't see it happening in Japan, Korea, China, and many other Asian countries. Everyone is slim despite good food everywhere you look.

Have you watched the local variety programs in Japan, where people eat a lot against the clock. There's your proof, for openers. So I guess you can call sumo wrestlers slim, right?

While the focus is on Japan as an ageing society, I think this could be an increasing problem here. While the current elderly compose a large proportion of the Japanese population, they are mostly extremely healthy and have eaten balanced diets during their lifetimes, offsetting even the high percentage of men who were heavy smokers. The coming generations of elderly Japanese will not have eaten as well, and will be more susceptible to heart disease, Type II diabetes, cancer, etc.

I hear you. I see it more and more when I go back to my home country.

People back home have always been fat. But over the past few years i have been noticing it a lot more in Japan. There are definitely way more double chins than there used to be. Sadly a lot of them are on kids and young adults.

Over and above the obvious dangers of obesity is the false promise of a so-called obesity pill

Since those false promises are not what the doctors and experts expect from the new drugs to treat obesity why give importance to them? the only ones repeating these false promises are antiscientific propaganda groups that have always misrepresented anything new that appears, by now most people should already know not to give any importance to what those groups have to say.

Old friend from Oz (he was an ALT 20 years ago) came and stayed in January for 10 days.

He's a strong middle-aged man who works out, runs, bikes, swims etc. His lovely partner of many years - our first time meeting - was a keen walker, but shuns any other form of exercise. I'd estimate she was easily 40% overweight which would surely put her in the obese category.. She wasn't bothered by it nor was anyone else - well not in my family and friends. We had a great time.

But the eyeopener was the eating. I know when travelling folks want to try out tons of new dishes, but food was a constant preoccupation. They both consumed double what my wife and I ate, but he ran every morning for an hour or so. It seems her excess 30kgs is solely from eating too much.

Looking at their Ozzie photos I was surprised to see many of her family and their friends were quite overweight.

Australia it seems is / has certainly followed the trend of some other mainly wealthier countries, esp US.

People under 50yo have no clue on the typical medical costs that they'll pay for the rest of their life just by being fat. Not to mention the toll it'll take on their joints and quality of life. Not to mention the excessive resources needed to feed these human bovines.

Since those false promises are not what the doctors and experts expect from the new drugs to treat obesity why give importance to them? the only ones repeating these false promises are antiscientific propaganda groups that have always misrepresented anything new that appears, by now most people should already know not to give any importance to what those groups have to say.

Someone's hypersensitive to any perceived criticism of the pharmaceutical industry...! In your rush to defend your employer, you completely ignored the main thrust of my comment: personal/family responsibility for what people eat. Why should taxpayers who eat healthy food bail out people who continually make bad eating choices and clog up the medical system with their mainly preventable ailments?

And the most obscene thing is that more than half of the world will soon be taking (yet another) pill that will allow them to keep eating the utter junk that now passes as food and to lose weight at the same time. Big pharma, the food conglomerates and their lobbyists have created a truly sick society.

There is no reason to think pharmaceutical options are going to become the first line for treatment of obesity...

Well, the pharmaceutical option seems to be the first line of treatment for everything else...

And we've already witnessed obesity being addressed (unsuccessfully) with pharmaceuticals, sometimes with deadly consequences...

Just tax the overweight more.

Someone's hypersensitive to any perceived criticism of the pharmaceutical industry

Not at all, just making it very clear that the professionals have never made those promises, only antiscience groups that love to misrepresent every advancement so they can criticize those imaginary nefarious things.

Can you bring any reference where actual experts have described the new pharmacological help in the way you misrepresented? no? that is the whole point.

Making up terribly bad personal attacks instead of defending the misrepresentation you made actually helps a lot understanding you intended from the very beginning to present a false image, so you made no effort to defend it, instead switching to baseless claims about anybody that made it clear your criticism is invalid.

Well, the pharmaceutical option seems to be the first line of treatment for everything else...

The consensus for most chronic health problems is that is much more productive and effective to begin with lifestyle changes, it is also much more difficult so people resist when given those recommendations.

And we've already witnessed obesity being addressed (unsuccessfully) with pharmaceuticals, sometimes with deadly consequences

The same that happens with dietary interventions or changes in the life style, which very frequently are ineffective precisely because of reasons as the ones described in the article. No medical intervention is perfect, and nothing can guarantee to be always effective.

I lost 15 kilos after having a double leg operation 5 month, and it took about a year by walking about 30 minutes 4 times a week and not eating after 4 pm until the following morning. Unfortunately, I have an injured foot and so not dropping a thing, but I have been able to maintain my weight since the foot injury and hope to be back to my walking in a few weeks from now and continue the weight loss.

Blessedly, my child has always been a healthy weight and I hope that carries through his adult life.

I think regardless of where you fall within the obese scale, there is typically something you can do to move the needle and stressing the importance and rewards of it is basically all that is needed.

Since those false promises are not what the doctors and experts expect from the new drugs to treat obesity why give importance to them?

This claim blatantly falls flat in the face of the medical consensus.

People in the medical profession and laymen alike know that doctors already prescribe drugs to treat obesity and the drive to produce more effective drugs of this nature is an ongoing effort.

Japanese are already a lot chunkier now than when I arrived here 25 years ago. It's shocking, actually.

This claim blatantly falls flat in the face of the medical consensus.

Then how come you are completely unable to support how thi is is false and only make a baseless claim?

Can you bring a few medical institutions making this false promise? no? that is because it was only made by antiscientific groups trying to misrepresent the actual uses and benefits expected.

Prescribing drugs in no way proves they were promised to solve all the problems by themselves and "make people think they can eat whatever they like and still lose weight" that is what you need to prove to prove the criticism is not valid, something you could not do.