Top 10 most obese countries in the world (PHOTOS)

The World

The World Health Organization keeps a close eye on what it has labeled an epidemic of obesity around the world. In 2008, 1.5 billion adults around the world were overweight, and another 500 million people were obese.

Obesity isn’t just a problem in poor American communities. It has also hit places like the Caribbean and Brazil, better known for its gorgeous women.

“In the last three to four years we have realized it is in Central America, many of the Caribbean countries,” Dr. James Hospedales, an expert in Prevention and Control of Chronic Diseases for the World Health Organization, told GlobalPost. “We had to say ’Wait a minute, this isn’t just a problem in America, it is a problem pretty much across the board.’”

The WHO has classified the world’s most obese nations by the percentage of the population with a BMI over 25.

Read more from GlobalPost about the global obesity epidemic.

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