we're not fat! (er, well, um, maybe?)

you would hope the health and fitness movement is finally having an effect after seeing this:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/news/america-fattest-obese-un-144341236.html

the article references a report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which you can read here:

http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3300e/i3300e.pdf

according to the FAO, the U.S. no longer has the highest percentage of obese people in the world. it's now Mexico.

um, so, i guess hooray?

it is a positive trend, going from #1 to #2. but #2 isn't exactly anything to be proud of, especially when you go behind the rankings to see what they're referring to: Mexico has 32.8% of its population being obese, while the United States has 31.8%, both of which are obscenely high numbers.

in addition, it's still disturbing when you realize that these obesity rates are rising. you can see the numbers for the United States:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/163205/snapshot-obesity-rate-ticking.aspx

so the point to draw from this is that while the relative rankings may have changed, the absolute scale of the problem remains the same: we're all getting fatter. and that's not good.

health and fitness folks, we've got a long way to go.