A damning report on the physical state of the nation has revealed that Portugal has “one of the highest rates of obesity in the European Union”.
The problem affects both adults and children, David Carvalho, president of the Portuguese society into the study of obesity warns – stressing it is largely due to the “moving of people to the suburbs” which leaves them with less time for exercise.
Talking to Lusa ahead of National Anti-Obesity Day on Saturday, Carvalho labelled the issue as “worrying”.
Indeed Portugal’s fatties are only trounced by heavy-weights in Malta, writes Observador website, while elsewhere the World Health Organisation has released a study that predicts obesity will become a “major crisis in Europe by 2030” with “almost all the adults in Ireland”, for example, being classified obese by then.
Nationally, Portugal has “a million obese adults”, with the levels of obese children rising all the time.
According to Carvalho, the problem is also very much a social one, powered by the economic crisis.
“Fatty foods, in terms of providing calories, are cheaper than fruit and vegetables,” he explained.
As part of National Anti-Obesity Day, Lisbon’s Ginásio Clube Português will be discussing the problem “as a 21st century epidemic and influenced by urbanism”.
