UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- The number of adults with obesity in Latin America and the Caribbean increased dramatically to affect 24 percent of the regional population, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday citing a joint UN agency report.
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the report, released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization, the UN Children's Fund and the World Food Program, also warned malnutrition rate is up.
Haq said that according to the report, the most significant increase in adult obesity in the region was observed in the Caribbean where the percentage quadrupled, rising from 6 percent in 1975 to 25 percent, or an increase from 760,000 people to 6.6 million people.
"At the same time, every year 600,000 people die in Latin America and the Caribbean due to diseases related to poor diets, such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases," the spokesman said.
The report "the Panorama of Food and Nutritional Security 2019" urged countries in the region to take urgent measures to address the increasing malnutrition, as well as to improve environments through taxes and incentives that favor healthy food, social protection systems, school feeding programs and the regulation of food advertising and marketing.
The agencies also called for frontal nutritional warning systems, ensuring the safety and quality of food sold on the street, and reformulating the composition of certain products.
