• GROWTH: The share of Mexicans adults who are overweight or obese grew from 71.3% in 2012 to a record high 75.2% in 2018 revealing an alarming public health emergency that also reflects in children, according to Mexico’s most recent national health and nutrition survey.
• CHILDREN: For Mexican children between 5 and 11 years old, the study showed the overweight and obesity rate also grew from 34.4% in 2012 to 35.6% in 2018. Like in other countries around the world, officials link this growth to an increase in consumption of high calorie foods.
• DEATHS: “For the past 12 years, half of the (total) annual deaths in Mexico have been associated with poor nutrition: an excessive consumption of calories, fats, sugar and salt”, said Hugo López Gatell, the current undersecretary for prevention at Mexico’s Ministry of Health.
• RANKING: Behind Suriname and Guyana -two smaller countries- Mexico has the highest death rate from obesity in The Americas (102.98 deaths per 100,000) according to the 2018’s Global Burden of Disease study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
