Results of a new survey released on Friday highlight an alarming trend worldwide. The findings revealed that more than one in eight adults worldwide are obese, the ratio having more than doubled over the span of four decades.
The number of obese people in the world in 1975 was 105 million, but this has significantly risen to 641 million in 2014.
The findings were based on a pooled analysis of 1,698 population-based studies involving more than 19 million participants who represent 99 percent of countries worldwide.
Obesity rates increased from just 3.2 percent to 10.8 percent among men, and from 6.4 percent to 14.9 percent among women.
If the current trend continues, a fifth of adults worldwide will be obese by 2025, which could bring potentially disastrous consequences as weight problems have long been linked to increased risks for a range of potentially fatal health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Researchers likewise said that, without changes to the current trajectory, it is unlikely that the world would meet the target set by the United Nations for halting the rising obesity rate by 2025.
"If post-2000 trends continue, the probability of meeting the global obesity target is virtually zero," the researchers reported in their study, which was published in the journal Lancet.
"If these trends continue, by 2025, global obesity prevalence will reach 18 percent in men and surpass 21 percent in women; severe obesity will surpass six percent in men and nine percent in women."
What's driving the increase in global obesity rates? Researchers behind the study said that the spike could be attributed to better access to cheap food as people's incomes rise.
Healthier foods, such as whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, are likewise more costly to buy compared with highly-processed foods that are known to fuel unhealthy weight gain.
The researchers said that the obesity epidemic is too extensive to be addressed only with medications and treatments. Much more needs to be done to curb this public health problem.
"We need coordinated global initiatives — such as looking at the price of healthy food compared to unhealthy food, or taxing high sugar and highly processed foods — to tackle this crisis," said study researcher Majid Ezzati from the Imperial College London.
Despite the growing obesity problem, particularly in developed nations, extremely low weight remains a problems in the poorest parts of the globe. Nearly one-quarter of people who live in South Asia, for instance, are underweight.
