Ending the Hunger Games

Although it remains unclear whether obesity has now become a bigger killer worldwide than hunger, there can be no doubt that it is one of the greatest problems facing humanity today. More than a quarter of all adults are estimated to be clinically obese in a slew of countries as culturally and geographically diverse as Samoa, Egypt, Argentina, Costa Rica, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Czech Republic, and the United States. Some models predict that this will cost the global economy $4 trillion (2.9 percent of global GDP) by 2035.