About half of European adults will be obese by 2030, partly because of an emerging epidemic of obesity among children and adolescents, a heath researcher said Wednesday. About 15 percent of 20 percent of European adults are now obese, compared with about 24 percent of American adults. We do not reach yet the U.S. Levels, but we are unfortunately approaching it, Van Gall. Practically nobody in Europe is eating an appropriate diet, according to Philip James, chairman of the International Obesity Task Force, an independent group of obesity scientists from around the world. We have failed to get people into a sane state of thinking a out diets, he said.
People are obese if they are so fat that their health is harmed.
It is defined universally by measuring the body mass index, or BMI, which is calculated by multiplying weight in pounds by 703, then dividing that result by weight in inches squared. The World Health Organization s threshold for obesity is a body mass index of 30 more. People who have a BMI of 25 or more are considered overweight. About 15 to 20 percent of European adults are currently obese, meaning they have a BMI of 30 or more. That figure will grow to as high as 50 percent in the next 30 years, said Jaap Seidell, president of the European Association for the Study of Obesity.