Developing countries should act now to head off their own "obesity¹ epidemic²", says a global policy group.

一个全球决策组织称，发展中国家应立即采取行动阻止“肥胖流行病”的蔓延。

The Organisation³ for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says obesity levels are rising fast.

In a report in the Lancet medical journal, it says low-income countries cannot cope with the health consequences of wide scale obesity.

Rates in Brazil and South Africa already outstrip⁴（超过） the OECD average.

Increasing obesity in industrialised countries such as the UK and US has brought with it rises in heart disease, cancer and diabetes⁵（糖尿病） .

However, increasing prosperity in some developing countries has led to a rise in "Western" lifestyles.

Now the OECD warns that they are catching⁶ up fast in terms of obesity rates.

Across all the countries represented in the OECD, 50% of adults are overweight or obese⁷.

Childhood obesity

Rates in the Russian Federation⁸ are only just below this, and while fewer than 20% of Indians are classed this way, and fewer than 30% of Chinese people, the body says things are worsening fast.
 
The report recommends that these countries act now to slow the increase, with media campaigns promoting healthier lifestyles, taxes and subsidies⁹（补贴，津贴） to improve diets, tighter government regulation of food labelling and restrictions¹⁰ on food advertising¹¹.

Its authors calculate that doing this would add one million years of "life in good health" to India's population, and four million to China over the next 20 years.

The cost would be considerable but the OECD insists that the strategy would pay for itself in terms of reduced health care costs, becoming cost-effective at worst within 15 years.

Michele Cecchini, one of the report's authors, said: "A multiple intervention¹² strategy would achieve substantially larger health gains than individual programmes, with better cost-effectiveness."

She suggested that specific action be taken to target childhood obesity.