It’s official — Kiwis are fatter than Brits.
New Zealand was ranked 7th in the top 10 fattest nations in the world, according to American website Global Post.
The website has reported that based on national health surveys the World Health Organisation (WHO) compiled between 2000 and 2008, 62.7 percent of all New Zealanders are overweight.
So what’s to blame for our ever-expanding waistlines?
The remote control.
Researchers found that the amount of time New Zealand children spend watching television is a better predictor of obesity than what they eat or how much they exercise, according to a study by University of Otago.
The study found that 41 percent of the children who were overweight by age 26 were those who had watched the most TV.
New Zealand is also in the top four countries — along with the US, Australia and Canada — with the most McDonald's per capita in the world.
One in three of the world’s adults is overweight and one in 10 is obese.
By 2015, WHO estimates the number of chubby adults will balloon to 2.3 billion, which is equal to the combined populations of China, Europe and the US.
The number-one food lovers of the world are American Samoans, with a whopping 93.5 percent of their population classified as overweight.
Rounding out the rest of the top 10 were Kiribati, followed by the US, Germany, Egypt, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Israel, Croatia and the United Kingdom.
News home