David Haselwood | The world is gaining weight at a shocking rate

An interesting map reveals how global obesity rates have skyrocketed between 1975 and 2014.

“At the low end, North Korea’s obesity rates are up… from 1.6% in 1975 to 2.8% today. Japan is also near the bottom with a 2% increase since 1975 (from 1.1% to 3.3%). The largest changes occurred in smaller Pacific island countries. Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu all saw their obesity rates increase by more than 20%, a doubling of what they were in 1975.

“Perhaps the country that stands out most of all is China. In 1975, only 0.5% of Chinese adults were obese. Today, China’s obesity rate is about 8%, a 16-fold increase in the most populous country in the world.”

It can be difficult to comprehend the numbers, which is why an entrepreneur named Max Galka created a map that changes color according to its adult obesity rate, illustrating “how the world became obese.”