American nutrition expert Professor Barry Popkin says that the number of overweight people in the world is now bigger than the number of people who don't have enough to eat. A billion people worldwide now weigh too much and the number of obese people is now more than 300 million. "Obese" means at least 15 kilos heavier than you should be. However, there are also 800 million people in the world who don't have enough to eat. Professor Popkin says that the number of hungry people is falling slowly but the number of overweight people is rising fast. The main reasons for this are: * People are doing less hard physical work * More people worldwide now eat too much fatty food * Too many people are driving cars instead of walking * People spend too much time in front of a television The United States has the highest rate of obesity in the developed world and Japan has the lowest. Professor Benjamin Senauer is absolutely certain of the reasons for this. "Japanese people are fit. They use public transport and walk," he said. "The average American drives to work and drives to supermarket. When he gets home, he sits on a couch in front of the TV and eats junk food." In Britain and many other European countries, there are three times as many obese people as there were 20 years ago. About two thirds of British adults are overweight or obese. "The effects of this are clear," said London doctor Elena Power. "We have more illnesses related to weight and fewer fit people. China used to be one of the slimmest nations in the world. However, Professor Wu Yangfeng from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing recently estimated  that 20 percent of the world's overweight people live in China. The Chinese government is especially worried about the increase in obesity among schoolchildren. "We have a serious problem," said Professor Wu. "It requires an improvement from everyone, or it will get worse. How many people weigh too much in the world now?
A billion. 20 billion. 300 million. 800 million.