By Nazario Rodriquez Jr.
Horizon news staff

THE hottest topic around the world nowadays is about the latest on health. It’s not about AIDS or avian flu. It is about how globalization threatens to unhealthy the world, if there’s such a thing.
Early this month, the World Health Organization released its list of the World’s Fattest Countries.
Nauru tops a list of countries with the greatest percentage of overweight people with an alarming rate of 94.5 percent of its adult population ages 15 and above.
Actually, eight of the top 10 fattest countries in the world are from the Pacific. The top 10 are Nauru (94.5), Federated States of Micronesia (91.1), Cook Islands (90.9), Tonga (90.8), Niue (81.7), Samoa (80.4), Palau (78.4), Kuwait (74.2), United States (74.1) and Kiribati (73.6).
With too much dependence on imported food items, no wonder Palau is among the top. It is a fact that we all could not deny. But we are not to be blamed for this. It is the effect of globalization.
WHO noted that there are currently 1.6 billion overweight adults in the world.
That number is projected to grow by 40% over the next 10 years. The following list reflects the percentage of overweight adults aged 15 and over. These are individuals who have individual body mass indexes, which measures weight relative to height, greater than or equal to 25. Obese is defined as having a BMI greater than or equal to 30.
Experts say that people in the world are increasingly overweight because of "urbanization and the influx of Western ways of life including myriad fast food choices, little exercise and stressful jobs."
Which is why the change in lifestyle is most evident in the South Pacific.
Writer Lauren Streib said that in the last 50 years this area has established significant economic ties with the U.S. and New Zealand, which caused a surge in Western imports and a significant change in diet. Studies conducted by the WHO Western Pacific regional office and by the International Obesity Task Force, a London-based think tank, also point to several other factors they say contribute to the region’s high obesity rates. "These include the common belief that beauty is marked by a large physical size, the reliance on fatty, nutrient-deficient imported foods and a decrease in activity caused by less farming and agricultural work," Streib wrote.
And it is no wonder also that the countries on the bottom of the list are from the landlocked countries of Africa, 11 of the last 15 including 180th Uganda (14.8); 181st Kenya (14.3), 182nd Burkina Faso (14.1), 183rd Rwanda (13.7), 184th Zambia (13.0), 185th Burundi (12.9), 186th Central African Republic (12.9), 187th Cambodia (11.3), 188th Dem. Republic of the Congo (9.1), 189th Nepal (8.4), 190th Sri Lanka (7.4), 191st Vietnam (6.4), 192nd Bangladesh (6.1), 193rd Ethiopia (5.6), 194th Eritrea (4.4).
Back here in Palau, it is expected that the soon to be completed Compact Road would further the influx of foreign products in Babeldaob instead of becoming a farm-to-market road for agricultural products that are locally produced as the Taiwan Technical Mission in Nekken Farm is envisioning.
Just very recently, we were in Peleliu covering the health and physical education workshop conducted by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education. One of the main objectives of the workshop is about a bill that would make PE and health more visible into the school curriculum especially among elementary students. We believe that proper nutrition should be taught among the kids.