Dubai The UAE ranks as the fifth fattest nation in the world, according to a recent study published by a BMC Public Health journal.
It ranks behind the US, Kuwait, Qatar. Bahrain takes the 10th position in the report.
The report notes that an average adult in the UAE and Qatar consumes over 3000 calories per day, almost 20 per cent above the average.
The recommended daily calorie consumption for adult men should be 2500 calories while woman shoud consume 2000 calories per day.
The report in the health journal warned that the world’s adult population is getting fatter. The global population is estimated to weigh 287 million tonnes of which 17 million tonnes is due to people being overweight.
Earlier, a senior doctor at the UAE MInistry of Health had warned that more people are dying of non-communicable diseases such as heart disease. He said the alarming thing is that children are less physically active today which will make a large section of the population obese by the year 2015.
He also said about 44.5 per cent of the women in the UAE could become obese in three years.
The research quoted scientists as saying that the number of obese people in the world will affect the world’s resources and cause a “major threat” to food security.
“Tackling population fatness may be critical to world food security and ecological sustainability,” the report said.
The US accounts for almost one third of the world’s weight due to obesity. Asia in contrast has 61 per cent of the world’s population but only 13 per cent of the world’s weight, it said.
North Korea was ranked the world’s slimmest nation with an average consumption of 2,342 calories per day. Nepal followed in second place, ahead of Sri Lanka and Vietnam at third and fourth place, respectively.
