In the 21st century, gluttony has ceased to be a harmless habit and a personal matter. Mass obesity has an increasing impact on economic policy, energy, industry, prices for raw materials and food.

There are currently almost a billion obese people on the planet, the World Health Organization states. And obese not in terms of model standards, but so obese that excess weight threatens serious health problems (when the body mass index is more than 25-30). By 2015, there will already be 3.2 billion obese people on Earth – almost half of its inhabitants, the WHO predicts.

On a global scale, the increase in average human weight leads to increased demand (and higher prices) for raw materials and food: the greater the body mass, the more calories the body requires to stay alive and moving, explain the authors of the study “The Weight of Nations: Estimating the Biomass of Adult Humanity” (published Monday in the journal BMC Public Health).

If it weren't for mass obesity, our planet could feed not 7 billion, but 8 billion people, the authors of the study believe. And the total mass of the Earth's inhabitants would be 15 million tons less than now. This is equivalent to 242 million people with an average body mass index, or the population of all of Indonesia.

In Russia, 51.7% of the population is overweight. The fattest in the world are Americans, 74% of the population suffers from obesity. And the slimmest live in Asia - only 24.2% of residents are overweight there. In Africa, 28% are.

Obesity exacerbates economic imbalances around the world. Overweight people live predominantly in developed countries, and they push up demand for raw materials and food and contribute to rising prices. And those who suffer the most from rising food prices are residents of the world's poorest countries, who are forced to eat even less.

Economists consider obesity a negative externality: society is forced to pay for the bad habits of individual citizens. Of course, a person is free to decide what to do with his health, but his treatment is paid for by our taxes, and so is the disability pension.

Unfortunately, there are no methods for combating mass obesity that are not similar to those used to combat alcoholism and tobacco smoking. Only corrective taxes that increase the cost of harmful products, restrictions on television advertising and places of sale of unhealthy food, labels on packages warning about the dangers of eating fatty and high-calorie foods. Some airlines have started charging obese people higher prices for tickets. Maybe someone knows how to act more humanely and effectively?

From the editors: Let's get fat together