Australians weigh in with a fat chance

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-21  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

AUSTRALIA is on track to become the fattest nation, although experts questioned yesterday whether it had overtaken the United States and small Pacific countries for the unenviable title.

Around 4 million Australian adults, or 26 percent of the population, were obese, eclipsing the 25 percent rate in the US, a study by the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute released in Melbourne said.

"If we ran a fat Olympics we'd be gold medal winners as the fattest people on earth at the moment," Institute preventative cardiology head Professor Simon Stewart told the Age newspaper.

The report, Australia's Future Fat Bomb, for a government inquiry into the nation's obesity problem, said 70 percent of men and 60 percent of women aged 45 to 65 were technically overweight or obese.

In total, 9 million people were too heavy - almost half the 21 million population - and 123,000 were at risk of early death over the next 20 years, the study said.

While the report said Australia had overtaken the US as the most obese nation, recent US studies show around 34 percent of Americans are overweight or obese.

But small Pacific nations top World Health Organization lists, with 94.5 percent of people in tiny Nauru classed as overweight. The Federated States of Micronesia (91.1 percent), the Cook Islands (90.9 percent), Tonga (90.8 percent) and Niue (81.7 percent) rounded out the WHO top five, while the US came in at number nine, with 74.1 percent overweight or obese.