Mexico Now the Most Obese Country in the World

Flickr/Gloser_Chivas
Flickr/Gloser_Chivas

Put down the burger, and back away from the french fries, America. You've been replaced by Mexico as the most obese country in the Americas, according to CBS News.

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With a 32.8 percent adult obesity rate, Mexico barely passes the United States' 31.8 percent rate - but it does, by a whole 1 percent.

It's not just rice and tacos that are expanding stomachs and raising obesity rates in Mexico. Convenience, less manual labor, and large consumption are a few likely contributors to the spread of the disease.

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The poorer and younger classes are particularly affected, according to Abelardo Avila, a physician with Mexico's National Nutrition Institute. "In the poor classes we have obese parents and malnourished children," he says. "The worst thing is the children are becoming programmed for obesity. It's a very serious epidemic."

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As many as 70,000 Mexicans die from obesity every year, and 40,000 new cases of obesity are diagnosed each year.

-Haley Willard, The Daily Meal

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