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According to Paul Zimmet "This insidious, creeping pandemic of obesity is now engulfing the entire world. It's as big a threat as global warming and bird flu." This statement was recently made at the International Congress on Obesity which is held once every four years.

Paul Zimmet is Foundation Director of the International Diabetes Institute, and Professor of Diabetes at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, at Deakin University, Victoria, Australia, and at the Graduate School of Public Health of the University of Pittsburgh, USA. He is also co-Chair of the IDF Task Force on Epidemiology.

Acording to the World Health Organization, more than 1 billion adults are overweight with 300 million of them are obese.

People have been getting fatter and fatter every year for the past 25 years. And this increase is not limited to adults. The percentage of young people who are overweight has more than tripled since 1980. Among children and teens aged 6-19 years, 16 percent (over 9 million young people) are considered overweight.

Why is this of concern? Mainly because it puts people at much higher risk for diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), coronary heart disease, stroke, and some forms of cancer.

Of special concern is the growing obesity rates among children. This is not only leading to a high degree of type 2 diabetes among teenagers but also setting them up for shortened life spans and more health problems in their later years.

The main culprits in the alarmingly fast growth of child obesity are, without a doubt, fast foods. Fast foods tend to be loaded with what has become the new primary food groups - salt, fat, and sugar. Any one of these ingredients in excess can easily lead to problems, but with all three you're basically begging for trouble.

What's even worse is that even so called 'health foods' are not helping with the problem. Foods advertised as "low-fat" tend to compensate with "high sugar". Foods low in sugar are high in salt. And fats are in food everywhere.

So what can we do? Some of the experts are pushing for governments to impose bans on junk foods. But that's not going to happen.

The answer is moderation. We are never going to completely get rid of fast foods. Our entire economy is geared for it. But what we can do is to watch more closely what we eat by religiously choosing the low-calorie options at your restaurants and shopping marts.