The World Health Organization projects that five years from now, in 2015, the number of overweight adults will increase to 2.3 billion, up from just 1.6 billion five years ago.

The Global Post lists the world's top ten fattest countries, as measured by the percentage of the population with a BMI index of more than 25. Most are island nations, but the United States is also on the list.

1.Nauru: 95 percent of the population

Nauruans historically engaged in fattening ceremonies, where young women were kept inside and fed to excess. That legacy, plus the more recent transition to Western-style meals, has been devastating.

2.Micronesia
3.Cook Islands
4.Tonga: All three of these island nations weigh in at a 92 percent overweight population.
5.Niue: 84 percent
6.Samoa: 83 percent
7.Palau: 81 percent
8.United States: 79 percent
9.Kiribati: 77 percent
10.Dominica: 76 percent
Other overweight nations include Kuwait and Argentina (75 percent), Mexico (73 percent), Australia (71 percent), Egypt and Greece (70 percent), Belarus (67 percent) and the United Kingdom (66 percent).

Obesity is now a worldwide problem. Dubbed "globesity," the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that by 2015 there will be more than 2 billion overweight and 700 million obese adults worldwide.

The problem, aside from the wide prevalence already, is that the trend is showing no sign of stopping, which will have disastrous health effects on a worldwide scale.

A number of studies have demonstrated links between obesity and a whole host of serious medical conditions, such as:

Depression
Gastro esophageal reflux
Sleep apnea

Gout
Osteoarthritis
Gallbladder disease

Kidney disease
High blood pressure
Diabetes

High cholesterol
Coronary artery disease
Heart failure

Atrial fibrillation
Pulmonary hypertension
Stroke

Blood clots
Dementia
Numerous cancers

Other statistics on the danger of obesity includes:

People who are moderately obese live two to five years less than people that have ideal weight.
The lifespan of those who are severely obese might be reduced by five to 10 years.
The biggest threat of obesity is heart disease, which is now the number one cause of death in the US.
Insulin resistance is also the underlying factor in a large number of diseases, and one of the signs that you're a prime candidate for developing insulin resistance is obesity.

If you're obese, it's virtually guaranteed that you're also insulin resistant, and this is directly linked to increased inflammation in your body. Chronic inflammation is the hallmark of high cholesterol, heart disease, and many other chronic health conditions.

It's quite clear that controlling your insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to optimize your health and is also the most potent anti-aging strategy at your disposal, and to do this you need to make changes to your diet and exercise programs … changes that will also typically cause you to lose weight.

A Major Cause of Obesity You Need to be Aware Of
There are a multitude of reasons for the dramatic rise in obesity since the 1970's, including:

Increased consumption of highly processed food, especially fructose
Increased portion sizes of restaurant food and grocery products
Increased driving and computer use (sedentary activities)
Increased modernization and less physical activity
Lack of sleep
Certain medications
Endocrine disorders, changes in gut bacteria and genetics
Changing social perceptions of what is "normal" weight
All of these factors are possible contributors, but on a cultural scale it is the ingestion of fructose that is the primary variable contributing to the obesity epidemic.

This may sound overly simplistic, but I have studied this carefully for many years, and after evaluating many thousands of pages of documents I agree with the growing number of experts who have identified fructose as the most significant dietary factor that directly causes obesity, along with hypertension, diabetes, and a number of other related health problems.

In a recent article featuring an interview with Dr. Richard Johnson, I discussed compelling new evidence that links fructose consumption with increased uric acid levels, which is intricately linked to obesity and associated health problems like diabetes and high blood pressure.

I strongly advise you to read that article and listen to the interview to get a more in-depth understanding of the fructose/uric acid connection and how fructose wreaks havoc on your health -- and your waistline.

Thanks to Dr. Johnson's research, we now know that fructose generates uric acid within minutes of ingestion. High levels of uric acid are normally associated with gout, but it has been long known that people with high blood pressure and kidney disease, and people who are overweight, often have elevated uric acid levels as well.

It was thought this increased uric acid resulted from the disease, but it appears now that it may have been CAUSING it! Thanks to Dr. Mercola for this timley article.

If You're Overweight, Get Your Uric Acid Levels Checked
When your uric acid level exceeds about 5.5 mg per dl, you have an increased risk for a host of diseases, including hypertension, kidney disease, diabetes, and fatty liver, along with obesity.

Dr. Johnson suggests that the ideal uric acid level is probably around 4 mg/dl for men and 3.5 mg/dl for women. Most people who are overweight likely have uric acid levels well above 5.5. Some may even be closer to 10 or above.

So I would STRONGLY encourage everyone to have their uric acid level checked to find out how sensitive you are to fructose. The higher your uric acid, the more you need to limit or even avoid fructose -- including in fruits -- until your uric acid level normalizes.

The key step to optimize your uric acid levels if they are too high is the same as for optimizing your insulin levels, which is to drastically reduce or completely eliminate fructose and other sugars from your diet.

A Weight Loss Plan You Can Live With
It may seem like the cards are stacked against you when it comes to losing weight, but in reality virtually anyone can get back to their ideal weight when given the proper knowledge and tools of how to do so.

This is true even if you have a family history of obesity, as lifestyle changes can actually override any "fat genes" you may possess.

In the vast majority of cases, obesity is a direct result of poor dietary choices, especially consuming too much sugar and fructose, and a lack of exercise.

When you start paying close attention to what you're eating along with getting lots of physical activity, drastic beneficial changes often take place. So your first steps, if you're interested in driving down your insulin and uric acid levels and losing weight, should be to follow these four tenets of long-term optimal health and weight:

Eat a healthy diet that's right for your nutritional type, paying very careful attention to keeping your insulin levels down, primarily by avoiding fructose as much as possible
Exercise. It is particularly important that you integrate the newer Peak Fitness Techniques into your program for weight loss.
Get plenty of sleep
Manage your stress
Avoid diets full of soda, potato chips and other junk foods in lieu of their more nutritious traditional fare.
In order to lose fat at the most rapid rate, you need to create a rather large caloric deficit in a relatively short period of time.A pound of fat is 3,500 calories. Want to lose a pound of fat? Then you'll need to be 3,500 calories in the hole. Five pounds of fat? Make that 17,500 calories. There's simply no getting around the math.Unfortunately, drastic reductions in calorie intake only cause the body fight back against your dieting efforts, shutting down metabolism and holding on to body fat as a starvation protection mechanism. Enter the rapid fat loss Catch-22: You can't lose fat fast without quickly creating a massive calorie deficit, and you simply can't create a massive calorie deficit quickly without your body shifting in to starvation mode and rate-limiting your fat loss.
Eat a low-calorie diet, focusing on whole, natural foods. Eating 5 small meals is recommended. Eat Breakfast like a king, Lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. Avoid late meals & snacks. Constant stress elevates cortisol, messes up your metabolic system, and signals your cells to store fat.
Use resistance training to sculpt your muscles. Do short interval training instead of long, slow cardio.
Be aware of Fat Signals hormones:
Fat Signal #1: Burning Fat for Energy – Naturally When things are running smoothly, your fat cells produce leptin. This messenger sends out two signals: One, it tells your brain you’re full. That shuts down your hunger. Two, it tells the fat inside your cells to breakdown into a kind of fat that can be burned as energy. When these signals are working, you don’t get hungry as often and your fat gets burned naturally. But when too many fat cells build up, a protein called CRP sticks to the leptin and prevents it from delivering its message to your brain. Signal lost. This is called leptin resistance. The bottom line is you’ll always feel hungry and the fat inside your cells will stay there forever. When this happens it triggers a series of other signal problems. Reducing calories increase both cortisol and Leptin [Hunger Hormone]which leads to more belly fat.

Fat Signal #2: Controlling Sensitivity to the “Fat Hormone” Another messenger – adiponectin – controls your sensitivity to insulin. When you have lots of adiponectin, your body responds well to insulin and everything is fine – your waist is small, your heart is healthy and your arteries are clear. But as you age, your levels of this critical fat signal drop… then you’re more likely to get bigger and fatter.
The hormone ghrelin tells you you're hungry. When working right, it's triggered by an empty stomach. As you eat, your gut releases cholecystokinin (CCK). This hormone suppresses appetite. And when that happens, your pancreas sends out insulin to control the rise of glucose in the blood.
When you've eaten enough, fat cells release leptin. This hormone tells your brain to send the signal to put your fork down. And this is why balanced hormones are critical to weight control. If your leptin levels become unbalanced they stop sending the "stop eating" signal. So you're always hungry. You eat more. And pile on the pounds.

High levels of insulin also block leptin signals... so your brain thinks you're hungry. Before you know it, you're packing on pounds... which damages overall health.

Fat Signal #3: The Bad Guy… Turning Blood Sugar into Fat The 3rd messenger is actually a bad guy you want to get rid of… it’s called glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. This enzyme turns blood sugar into fat. Not what you want. The role of Leptin in Obesity: Leptin is a hormone produced by adipocytes (fat cells) that regulates body fat storage by modulating satiety, glycemic control and metabolism. When everything is working properly, leptin helps to keep adipose tissue (fat) within a normal, healthy range. However, diet and stress can lead to chronic inflammation and leptin resistance--chronic inflammation increases levels of C-reactive protein which binds to leptin, preventing it from doing its job. When leptin resistance occurs, the body does not get the signal to stop eating, leaving one feeling hungry even after having consumed enough calories. The World Health Organization has now classified obesity as a disease. It is often said that obesity is the biggest health problem facing the developed world today. It causes health problems such as hypertension, type II diabetes, heart attacks and strokes, elevated cholesterol and many more. Obesity is said to lead to 30,000 premature deaths each year and it is shortening the lives of people by an average of nine years. Probably the biggest breakthrough for the study of appetite regulation came in 1994 when the molecular geneticist Jeffrey Friedman discovered the adiposity signal leptin. It is an appetite suppressant. It stops you eating too much as well as makes you more active so you burn off more energy. Leptin is a hormone that assists in regulating both appetite and metabolism.
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