Experts Say We're Getting Fat

WASHINGTON (AP) â€” In an epochal triumph of plentiful food and easy-living technology, the human race is rapidly growing fat and out of shape, experts say. <br><br>The world already has about as many

Tuesday, January 30th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) â€” In an epochal triumph of plentiful food and easy-living technology, the human race is rapidly growing fat and out of shape, experts say.

The world already has about as many people who eat too much and get too little activity as it does people who remain hungry no matter how hard they scramble for meals, researchers say. Scientists expect the spread of technology to tip the balance toward sedentary living in coming decades.

Is this progress? The experts have reservations. While the ancient scourge of hunger recedes, others grow to replace it, they say â€” humanity is, in effect, swapping malnutrition for a heart attack.

``We think that the number of overfed people on the planet is at its highest level,'' said Brian Halweil of the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research organization in Washington. ``It's high and increasing in the developed world â€” and in the developing world, it's increasing extremely rapidly.''

Data from United Nations agencies such as the World Health Organization indicate at least 1.1 billion people get too few calories to ward off hunger, said Gary Gardner, coauthor with Halweil of a Worldwatch report on diet and physical activity. The data indicate another 1.1 billion or more take in too many calories, Gardner said.

The rest of humanity gets enough calories and enough exercise but lacks enough vitamins and minerals, Gardner said. In a sense, this middle group is in the best shape, ``but many of them are still far from optimal health,'' he said. ``The different deficiencies vary in terms of their seriousness for health. It's difficult to say in how bad a shape that middle section is.''

For the well-fed, the change in eating patterns is not simply an increase in calories, Halweil said â€” it's a change in type. More people can satisfy the natural craving for fatty and sugary foods, and the trend is encouraged by food processors, he said. So traditional diets based on beans and grains with small supplements of meat are going by the boards, he said.

The trends indicate that fat and flabby people will become the majority, said Halweil. ``We are at the cusp of that point,'' he said.

China, where famine recurs in history, is an example, said researcher Barry Popkin, a professor of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who was not connected to the Worldwatch study. ``In the last eight years in China, the proportion of overweight men has tripled,'' he said.

Fifteen percent of China's adult population is overweight, Worldwatch said.

It's not simply that the Green Revolution and other agricultural advances have made food more available, Halweil said, but technology has made it easier to get by on less work. Around the world, cars replace bikes, television replaces outdoor activity, and ``it's almost become unavoidable to be lazy,'' he said.

It's easy to predict that many countries will wind up looking like America â€” ``half the people being overweight and inactive,'' Popkin said. ``That's pretty scary.''

Much of the problem in the developing world is a result of a nasty type of urbanization, said Dr. Victor Matsudo of Sao Paolo, Brazil, a consultant on physical activity to the World Health Organization.

Thirty years ago, Brazilians could walk streets safely, and kids could play pickup soccer games in vacant lots, Matsudo said. Now, with many streets unsafe, people stay home, where they watch TV, he said. And even if kids were allowed to go out and play soccer, there's no place for them to do it â€” the former vacant lots have buildings on them, he said.

As a result, the beautiful bodies on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beaches don't represent Brazil, Matsudo said. ``The first three or four blocks from the beach, you find the people who are walking the beach, but Rio has 7 million inhabitants, and by far we do not have 7 million people on the beach,'' he said.

As in the United States, some people in the developing world have money to spend on health clubs and other activities. This gives them a better chance to control their weight.

These people, who are better-off financially, also generally are better educated. And they know that physical activity reduces the risk of chronic conditions such as heart disease, Halweil said.

But in the developing world, a lot of good can be done with little money, said Matsudo. For instance, people who can't walk the streets can still dance at homes and social centers, he said. In Brazil's case, it fits the culture: ``Brazilians love to dance,'' he said.

And smaller cities that lack Sao Paolo's crowding may still avoid urban troubles by good planning that leaves open spaces for activity, Matsudo said.

Matsudo also runs a government-backed program, Agita Sao Paolo, that seeks to build a mass movement to support physical activity in Sao Paolo state. Among Agita Sao Paolo's programs is a special physical activity day in schools, culminating in student parades through neighborhoods, he said.

Surveys indicate that more Sao Paolo state residents are becoming active, but the process may take decades, Matsudo said.

Similar community-level attempts to increase physical activity are being tried in the United States, said Michael Pratt of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who also is working with the World Health Organization.

``Changes have to be made at the population level,'' Pratt said. ``We can't tell people they are fat and lazy and they ought to get out more and eat a healthier diet.''

Americans also need safe streets to walk on, communities designed for walking and bikes as an alternative to cars, and buildings that encourage stair-climbing as an alternative to elevator-riding, Pratt said.

Otherwise, America will continue to set a bad example, Pratt said. ``We are the worst or one of the worst, but there are a lot of other countries that are not far behind,'' he said.

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On the Net:

WorldWatch Institute position statement: http://www.worldwatch.org/chairman/issue/001219.html

Agita Sao Paolo site (in Portuguese): http://www.celafiscs.com.br/index.htm

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sites on physical activity: http://aepo-xdv-www.epo.cdc.gov/wonder/prevguid/tpâ€”00703.htm