Obesity now affects more than a billion people worldwide, including children and adolescents. This phenomenon has progressed faster than expected and also affects young populations where the rate has quadrupled since 1990.
Some low- and middle-income countries, notably in Polynesia and Micronesia, the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, now have obesity rates higher than those of many industrialized countries. The WHO calls for “cooperation from the private sector, which must be responsible for the impact of its products”