The World's Newest Crisis - Not Enough People Are Starving

According to a recent wire report, there are now more overweight people in the world than the undernourished. During most of civilization, this would be cause for world-wide celebration. Famine has been one of humanity's greatest concerns for millennia. We created civilization in order to escape hunger (really). What's more, recent studies have shown that being well-nourished during gestation and the first two years has measurable benefits throughout one's life.

So what's the problem? According to experts,

An obesity pandemic threatens to overwhelm health systems around the globe with illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease, experts at an international conference warned Sunday.

Since the studies I quoted earlier show that proper nutrition in early life reduces heart problems this doesn't seem right. In fact, it must have come from the discredited study released by the CDC and retracted shortly afterwards.

There have been studies that show an increase in health problems related to inactivity and poor nutrition. Some studies actually show a slight health benefit to being slightly overweight. (I've linked to these before but I'm too lazy to look them up again.) These studies are normally ignored because current styles emphasize low body-fat. Doctors are letting aesthetics dictate science.

If this coming pandemic was going to happen then we would already be seeing the leading edges in the US. Instead, death rates from cardiovascular disease have been declining for decades.