The FSM Takes the Silver!

Forbes Magazine has come out with a ranking of the world's fattest countries, and the Federated States of Micronesia came in second place! It is so rare that a little country like this can make it (almost) to the top of any world ranking, but there we are!

According to the magazine, this list reflects the percentage of overweight people 15-years-old and older. They are considered obese if their body mass index equal to or greater than 30.

Here is the ranking of the top ten countries and the percent of obese people in them:

Rank Country %
1. Nauru 94.5
2. Federated States of Micronesia 91.1
3. Cook Islands 90.9
4. Tonga 90.8
5. Niue 81.7
6. Samoa 80.4
7. Palau 78.4
8. Kuwait 74.2
9. United States 74.1
10. Kiribati 73.6

Note how many Micronesian nations are on the world's top ten: Nauru (1), FSM (2), Palau (7) and Kiribati (10). Amazing records for some tiny, tiny countries!

In all seriousness, this is a terrible problem which few are doing anything about. In order to fix it, lives would have to be turned upside down. Imported foods would have to lose their prestige and local foods lose their stigma. People's taste for exceptionally salty and sweet foods would have to disappear.

It seems like a it would be easy to control the importation of unhealthy foods on an island such as this, but the money raised from selling junk food seems to be more important than the health damage caused to people.

This is just my (extremely simplified) opinion. Thank you for reading.