The United States gets criticized for being one of the fatter nations in the world. I've always wondered if that was true. Turns out its not. The United States it #9 in terms of the most obese nations from around the world.
Below is the list of the Top 20 most overweight countries in the world with the percentage of the population that's overweight.
Country % Overweight or obese
1. Nauru 94.5
2. Federated States of Micronesia 91.1
3. Cook Islands 90.9
4. Tonga 90.8
5. Niue 81.7
6. Samoa 80.4
7. Palau 78.4
8. Kuwait 74.2
9. United States 74.1
10. Kiribati 73.6
11. Dominica 71.0
12. Barbados 69.7
13. Argentina 69.4
14. Egypt 69.4
15. Malta 68.7
16. Greece 68.5
17. New Zealand 68.4
18. United Arab Emirates 68.3
19. Mexico 68.1
20. Trinidad and Tobago 67.9
On the other hand, the U.S. also ranks top 20 in the world in terms of healthiest nations in the world. Here's the list of the 15 Healthiest nations in the world.
- Iceland
- Sweden
- Finland
- Germany
- Switzerland
- Australia
- Denmark
- Canada
- Austria
- Netherlands
- United States
- Israel
- Czech Republic
- Spain
- France
I was surprised to see France at number 15 because I always hear about the great healthcare in France. The United States is going through a Healthcare crisis right now, with over 47 Million Americans without healthcare, but still manage to get on the top 15 list.
From both of these lists, are you surprised by any of the countries on the list? Are you surprised the United States made both lists below number 15?
Sources: World Health Organization, the World Bank and The UN
Comments (56)
Interesting... so, what exactly do they mean by overweight? Like what does it take to be overweight? And I'm wondering if the lists would be the same if we were talking about obesity, as opposed to simply overweight.
wow o.o I always thought that Canada was one of the most obese countries
Nope not too surprised.
O.M.G. we're not THE fattest nation in the world??? time to pop them bottles! and eat another big mac.
@Pieces_of_a_Melody@xanga - They're probably just going with a regular BMI chart like this: http://www.bmc.org/medicine/medicine/nutrition/images/BMI-Chart.png
Or that's what I figure, anyway.
As to the post, I'm not surprised.
im suprised not to see canada as one of the most overweight countries
when i go out i see so many overweight people; it makes me want to vomit and scream at them to hit the roads and run or bike.that's where all our healthcare money is going....
i'm moving to sweden!!
x AimÂ
I'm surprised I don't see Japan on the healthiest list... they happen to be very healthy. Although some of their food is highly unhealthy... overall, they are very healthy.
Hasn't this been posted before? I remember reading this and getting curious as to why so many Micronesian islands had such severe obesity problems and then doing a lot of research on the subject and wasting an entire afternoon on it.
People in the top 8 of the list are from the Pacific mostly from what I gather, and many of them are largely built and put on weight easily. They can afford to be a bit heavier than the rest of us, but it isnt really any reason to be obese. I know because I am a New Zealander and went to school with lots of Cook Islanders. Also their culture centers alot around food and festivals, and family and they use lots of things like coconut milk in their recipes which adds alot of calories to their meals.
Although I was shocked last year when I went to Rarotonga to see a girl the size of a Smartcar. That depressed me, that someone around my age could get that big. How is that even possible? I felt really sorry for her, but I was glad she lived somewhere that her weight probably didnt isolate her as much as it would have in a Western society.
@JoeytheGenie@xanga - I'm apalled.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3031711
@SoHoian_NightOwl@xanga - i would move to iceland but anything with the name ice(besides icesicle)
isn't going to float my boat..
how/where do they get the results?
@NoMoreThinSpos@xanga - could you kindly explain the reason to why you are appalled?
health is not necessarily synonymous with weight. The French do have really good health care, but they also smoke A TON, and eat a lot of butter and white bread. While their eating habits rarely seem to make them fat, the cultural smoking has gotta boost the lung cancer numbers somewhat. working out is also extremely not cultural in France. In Paris, a one year gym membership can cost more than 1000 dollars, and a day pass at a city gym usually costs around 30 euros... which is like 50 dollars!!!
@pinkkiex53@xanga - But iceland doesn't have any ice :) greenland does! lolÂ
Pacific Islanders and Some Middle eastern - interesting.
I know in the recent past heavier people were considered attractive in the Middle Eastern culture, because it was a sign of wealth. Even today on the Networks I see here their Divas, and Actors are Normal to plump- only a few are very skinny, because that is what is considered beautiful.
OMG FRANCE ???!! WTF !!
Well given that most of those other fattest nations are not first world countries and that most of them are much smaller than us, I'd say we're still the fattest nation. Because they may have the highet percentage, but we still probably have the highest NUMBER.
Let's look at the populations of all the top fattest, shall we?
    Country                     Population
1.   Nauru                      13,770
2.   Federated States of Micronesia    107,665 Â
3.   Cook Islands                  21,000
4.   Tonga                      119,009
5.   Niue                         1,444
6.   Samoa                     177,714Â
7.   Palau                       21,093
8.   Kuwait                   2,041,961
9.   United States            304,059,724
74.1% of 304,059,724 is a lot of frickin people. 94.5% of 13,770 is nothing compared to that.
@JoeytheGenie@xanga - it depends on what part of canada you visit. In toronto, everybody walks and is super skinny.
everyone smokes in France, i'm surprised they made the list period..
i mean we might be fat in america but we smoke waaaay less than europe
cook island sounds cute haha. never heard of it before
74.1% of americans are overweight? what? i thought it was 66.67%
Hmm...Im not too surprised actually. But yeahh...I was surprised seeing France at #15.