On a global scale, Vietnam fits into the low risk bucket when it comes to obesity rates with the medical condition afflicting less than 5% of the population.
The US (35.7%), Saudi Arabia (33%), Mexico (32%) and Argentina (30%) top the list of dangerously overweight countries, according to this map from Clinic Compare.
World Health Organization data from 2011 put Vietnam’s overweight population (defined as BMI of > 25kg/m2) at 10.2%, the lowest in SE Asia. Malaysia led the way at a downright scary 44.2%.
But that doesn’t mean that Vietnam is in the clear.
Late last year, Nguyen Anh Tuan of the Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Health said that the rate of obesity in some schools had reached up to 20% while the U.N. Children’s Fund estimates that the rate of overweight children in Vietnam has increased six-fold since 2000.
[H/T Gizmodo]
