In Zambia, 12.4% of women and 3.6% of men are obese — still below the average for the continent and nowhere close to the U.S. rates of roughly 36% for each gender. But obesity rates here have grown rapidly enough over the last several years to have become a deep concern for national health officials. “It’s a very big issue,” said Chitalu Chilufya, the minister of health. “It is a challenge that needs to be nipped in the bud now or else it will grow out of hand.” With expanding waistlines has come a rise in health issues. Diabetes, barely heard of here not long ago, now affects around 4.1% of Zambians, according to the International Diabetes Federation. “We’re losing a lot of people due to strokes and heart attacks because of obesity,” the health minister said.
and that doesn't even include the problem of high blood pressure from "western" foods that have a lot of salt in them.
why do I say this is "good news"? because the alternative is starvation, poverty, and dying of TB or other infections.
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