The Bahamas ranks sixth on obesity list

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas has been ranked the sixth most obese country in the world based on 2014 statistics from the World Health Organisation.

An obesity rate of 36.2 per cent pushed the country ahead of regional counterparts like Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, who ranked 12 and 13 on the top 25 list that was published by Yahoo News.

The United States came in ninth on the list.

Bahamian women had a significantly higher rate of obesity than men, according to the data compiled by HealthGrove, a health research firm that sourced WHO data from countries with populations that exceeded 150,000.

The obesity rate was calculated as the rate of people with a body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 30 as of 2014.

The island nation of Samoa claimed the title of the most obese country in the world with a rate of 43.4 per cent. Samoa has a population of 195,476. Arab countries Qatar and Kuwait came in second and third respectively.

According to the report, the Bahamas’ obesity rate jumped nearly three percentage points from 2010 when the rate was 33.5 per cent.

The obesity rate for Bahamian women was recorded at 42.5 per cent and Bahamian men at 29.7 per cent.

However, the rate for men showed the largest increase from the 2010 figure of 26.4 per cent. The rate for Bahamian women in 2010 was 40.2 per cent.

Comments

B_I_D___ says...

Ahhh yes...another record to be proud of. If ya ain't getting killed, ya dyin' from complications and diseases brought on by being a fat *****....

Posted 10 November 2015, 2:13 p.m. Suggest removal

TruePeople says...

ya too fat to run away

Posted 11 November 2015, 9:50 a.m. Suggest removal

bandit says...

We are not fat we sexy!

Posted 10 November 2015, 2:31 p.m. Suggest removal

HarryWyckoff says...

No, you're not fat.

You're unhealthily, life threateningly obese.

You will cause your family untold misery by forcing them to watch you die in a hospital while they watch everything they saved go to pay your medical bills.

All because of your gluttony.

Well done.

Posted 10 November 2015, 8:18 p.m. Suggest removal

B_I_D___ says...

Well said!

Posted 11 November 2015, 7:34 a.m. Suggest removal

TruePeople says...

Hey i like my thick girls still

Posted 11 November 2015, 9:51 a.m. Suggest removal

BoopaDoop says...

S-O-L-I-D

Posted 10 November 2015, 2:53 p.m. Suggest removal

Regardless says...

...the upside is we are finally in the top 10 of something. The downside it is the nation's average IQ is probably in the bottom 10. Nothing like culture!!!!

Posted 10 November 2015, 3:29 p.m. Suggest removal

HarryWyckoff says...

We're also in the top 10 countries for homicides per capita, top 10 for corruption, top 10 for lack of ease of doing business....

This is just another reason for that 'Bahamian Pride' we celebrate.

Be proud of this nations achievements- if you're not standing in Rawson Square fighting for change, you are a big big part of this nations problems.

Posted 10 November 2015, 8:22 p.m. Suggest removal

Publius says...

and also top 10 for rape per capita

Posted 11 November 2015, 1:29 a.m. Suggest removal

Regardless says...

....of course if The Bahamas were able to obtain the #1 position in obesity, there would be a sense of great pride and the elected leaders could bestow a new national holiday for the electorate. Dancing in the streets would obviously be restricted due to impossibility of many to physically move.

Posted 11 November 2015, 7:26 a.m. Suggest removal

TruePeople says...

Also top ten unemployment rate

Posted 11 November 2015, 9:52 a.m. Suggest removal

Alex_Charles says...

The Bahamas stands at 23 for homicides per capita in 2014
The Bahamas for corruption ranges anywhere from 24-58 depending on your source of information. the Global CPI lumps us with the United States which isn't near the top 10 for corruption either
the Bahamas stands at 23 for rape per capita
Multitude of sources including the world bank does not have the Bahamas' unemployment rate in the top 10. We are also a ways from it.
Our ease of doing business also not as bad as more than 10 countries... although it is kinda bad. We are ranked at 97 out of 189 countries and sovereign states between 2011-2015 according to the world bank. This may change.
The Bahamas' unemployment rate ranks at 56 according to the international labour organization, which is apart of the UN. kinda far from the top 10

Posted 11 November 2015, 10:37 a.m. Suggest removal

banker says...

It's th attack of the Gussie Maes. You can watch the jitney tilt when they get on. When they visit the doctor's office, the scale says "Please dismount from your horse while getting weighed".

But that een the wust of it. I heard that LBT was arrested for having ten pounds of crack. Een nobody gern push her around. Once she was locked inside a SuperValue for the weekend and almost starved to death.

But I digress. We should have sold ourselves to India instead of China -- cows are sacred there!

Posted 10 November 2015, 4:19 p.m. Suggest removal

B_I_D___ says...

Don't get me started on the five foot wide arse trying to squeeze into an airline seat...then they give you all this attitude as if it's a priveledge that you are pinned against the other side buried in a few rolls of their fat.

Posted 10 November 2015, 4:24 p.m. Suggest removal

Cobalt says...

Lol lol lol!! Banker you better stop!!

Posted 10 November 2015, 8:04 p.m. Suggest removal

ThisIsOurs says...

*Once she was locked inside a SuperValue for the weekend and almost starved to death.*

Oh boy...lol

Posted 10 November 2015, 10:28 p.m. Suggest removal

Pearl says...

Banker, I don't know who LBT is, but your comment is gold!

Posted 11 November 2015, 5:53 a.m. Suggest removal

killemwitdakno says...

Mandika Africans are fat anyhow.

Posted 10 November 2015, 7:02 p.m. Suggest removal

ThisIsOurs says...

This is the best story ever. I guess this means birdie's "VAT diet plan" failed

Posted 10 November 2015, 10:27 p.m. Suggest removal

ThisIsOurs says...

Many companies after offering exercise programs free of charge to their staff, but the staff don't take advantage of the opportunities. As a nation I think it's time to give monetary credit (tax reductions) to persons who are adopting healthy lifestyles. (And I mean people who take it seriously, not those who walk every morning but eat everything on God's green earth, that's counter productive, your stats, both weight and health tests must show that you're in good health). Give people incentives to be healthy, it's just as important as giving school children incentives for grade improvement. Makes no sense to have a 4.0 and then leave us at 40 due to some preventable disease.

As for Mrs Butler Turner, I give her my support, it's clear she is doing something about her weight but it will take time. She took probably twenty years to put it on, she can't lose it in six months, that wouldn't be healthy either. Keep at it.

We really need a leader with vision who can see the long term threats to our success and who is willing to do something about them.

Posted 11 November 2015, 4 a.m. Suggest removal

ohdrap4 says...

I went to a party the other night and had

five piece of chicken, macaroni and chee
roast beef , pork chop, rice and plack eye peas
stew conch crack conhc, conch salad too
potato salad, coleslaw, just to name a few.

Posted 11 November 2015, 6:29 a.m. Suggest removal

banker says...

How much of it did you tote?

*Hint: Never take Saran plastic wrap to tote. Always take aluminium foil. They can't see through the ferl to see what youse totin'.*

Posted 11 November 2015, 9:09 a.m. Suggest removal

DualCit68 says...

If dem gals run they body as much as they run they mouth it would help!

Posted 11 November 2015, 1 p.m. Suggest removal

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