Mexico City, March 2 (IANS) Twenty-nine percent women and 18 percent men in Latin America and the Caribbean suffer from obesity, Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Jose Graziano da Silva has said.
Speaking at the FAO's 34th Regional Conference in Mexico City, Graziano da Silva warned that the region was seeing a rapid rise in obesity, with around 22 percent of adults now suffering from the disease, Xinhua news agency reported.
He said obesity now affects seven percent of the children under the age of five in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Besides this, Silva said chronic malnutrition among children affects over 20 percent children in certain countries, including Mexico.
But he praised the region for having reduced child malnutrition by 12.9 percent in the last 25 years.
In the end, he said the FAO and its members in the region should work together to continue to improve nutrition and sustainable agriculture.
