76% of the world’s population has too much body fat. This is the alarming observation made by a team of researchers in a new study published in Frontiers in Public Health. This corresponds to 5.5 billion people described as “overfat”. The authors explain that these people have “enough fat mass to impair their health”. This includes people of normal weight who nevertheless have increased risk factors for chronic disease, for example people with a lot of abdominal fat.
Consider risk factors
Scientists believe that this new terminology based on fat mass and not on weight, would allow a better estimation of risk. Current data indicate that 49% of individuals are considered obese or overweight according to body mass index (BMI). This represents 3.5 billion people worldwide but excludes people with risk factors while maintaining a healthy weight. These risk factors can lead to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, or hypertension. Diseases that are spreading, especially in developed countries, and are synonymous with death and additional health costs.
“We want to warn about the increase in these risk factors with the terms ‘overfat’ and ‘underfat’ (insufficiency of fat mass which affects 10% of people in the world), which better describe the composition of the body”, indicate the researchers. They thus hope that these new terms, which do not yet have a French translation, will enter the current vocabulary.
Also to read
Breast milk would protect children from obesity
Obesity: a protein would promote weight loss
Obesity harms the brain
