So much for the Mediterranean diet — Greece & Italy have the world's most overweight kids

Most people know that the United States has a childhood obesity problem. Less well known is that according to the latest data from the OECD is that we are not actually the world leaders in experiencing this issue. It's Greece and Italy who have the most overweight kids:

This may not jibe with a lot of hype about the benefits of the Mediterranean diet but it turns out that said diet may no longer be especially popular in Greece and Italy. In 2008, Josef Schmidhuber of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization said traditional eating patterns in southern Europe had "decayed into a moribund state" and drastically increased their overall calorie intake and especially consumption of animal fat, salt, and sweeteners.

Further reading:

• Americans are exercising a little more and eating a lot more
• Want to lose weight? Move to Denver
• College graduates are less likely to be obese
• Red wine's magic ingredient has no actual health benefits

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