Danes’ girth growing
Rate of weight gain slower in Denmark than in most other OECD nations
The newest figures on Denmark’s obesity rate may look good compared with many other countries, but the news certainly isn’t anything to cheer about, reports MetroXpress newspaper.
According to the OECD’s latest ‘Obesity and the Economics of Prevention: Fit not fat’ report, Denmark is just below the average of the overweight populations in 33 developed countries, with 41 percent of its men overweight and 26 percent of its women in that category.
The report makes it clear that people are getting fatter across the globe, with Mexico and the US leading the way with more than two-thirds of their populations carrying excess baggage. Also, obesity rates increased in 11 of the study’s countries over the past year, and in Denmark 11 percent of men and 12 percent of women were found to be obese.
But Danes are gaining weight at a considerably slower rate than most other countries in the study. Scientists have found no hard facts to determine why this is so, but one Oxford University researcher, professor Stanley Ulijaszek, believes the social welfare system may have something to do with it.
‘His theory is that it is due to the differences in society’s various social safety nets – that is, security in the economy, job market, the health system and in housing and family matters,’ said Thorkild Sørensen, one of the country’s leading obesity experts.
The study listed the usual suspects as the reason for the growing epidemic: eating too much food, eating the wrong kinds of food and too little exercise.
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