There are now more overweight people across the world than hungry ones, according to experts. US professor Barry Popkin said all countries – both rich and poor – had failed to address the obesity boom. He told the International Association of Agricultural Economists the number of overweight people had topped 1bn, compared with 800m undernourished. Speaking at an Australian conference, he said changing diets and people doing less physical exercise was the cause. Professor Popkin, from the University of North Carolina, said that the change had happened quickly as obesity was rapidly spreading, while hunger was slowly declining among the world’s 6.5bn population. The biggest increases are being seen in parts of Asia with certain populations more susceptible than others Professor Tony Barnett, of Birmingham University He told the conference at the Gold Coast convention centre near Brisbane: ‘Obesity is the norm globally and under nutrition, while still important in a few countries and in targeted populations in many others, is no longer the dominant disease.’ He said the ‘burden of obesity’, with its related illnesses, was also shifting from the rich to the poor, not only in urban but in rural areas […]