How Milton Levine Made Millions of People Into Ant Farmers

14 February 2011

Patients at a weight reduction hospital in Tianjin, in China, where obesity is on the rise as living standards improve

BOB DOUGHTY: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty.

FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today, we will tell about a report that people around the world are getting fatter. We will tell about the newly reopened Computer History Museum in California’s Silicon Valley. And we will tell about a businessman who developed a best-selling product that brought living insects into millions of homes.

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BOB DOUGHTY: This month, a study of one hundred ninety-nine countries and territories confirmed what many people may have already suspected. People around the world are getting fatter. The study found that obesity has almost doubled since nineteen eighty.

Majid Ezzati at Imperial College London led the research team. He says the results show that obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are no longer just found in wealthy nations. These are now worldwide problems.

The Lancet published the findings. The study found that almost ten percent of men were obese in two thousand eight. That was up from about five percent in nineteen eighty. That same year, almost eight percent of women were obese. By two thousand eight, the rate of obesity among women was almost fourteen percent.