Obesity growing (ahem) faster than starvation

For instance, in Rarotonga, capital of the Cook Islands, 14 percent of men and 44 percent of women were obese in 1966. Now, 52 percent of men and 57 percent of women there are obese.

Lavelle surveyed weight in South Africa and rural Australia three years ago and found more signs of an emerging weight problem.

In Cape Town, 12 percent of girls and 16 percent of boys were considered overweight. In much poorer rural Klein Karoo 300 kilometers to the west, just 1 percent of boys and 2 percent of girls weighed this much.