China and other developing nations are experiencing the wrong kind of growth:
Increased foreign direct investment, the arrival of fast food restaurants, and increasingly sedentary lifestyles … have caused obesity and diabetes cases to rapidly increase in Brazil, India, and China (though to a lesser extent in Russia and South Africa, where malnourishment seems to be more prevalent). In Brazil, by the mid-2000s, the number of obese individuals has increased from 11.4 percent of the population in 2006 to 15.8 percent in 2011. And by 1998, 4.9 million adults had diabetes, with a projected increase to 11.6 million by 2025 . For a nation experiencing ongoing poverty and malnourishment, the rise of these silent but deadly diseases is alarming.
And it could sabotage their economies:
For example, if China were to provide insulin and oral medications – such as metformin and glibenclamide – to its diabetic population at one-third of the total U.S. per patient annual costs, and if only 25 percent of China’s total 92.4 million diabetes cases were treated, total annual costs would be approximately $46 billion per year – roughly half of China’s 2011 military defense budget.
(Photo: Overweight students attend military training during a weight-loss summer camp on July 30, 2009 in Shenyang of Liaoning Province, China. By Yang Xinyue/ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)
The Dish 