Seven years ago, when he became too fat to stand up, Jesús Salvador Torres lay down on the cement floor of his parents’ humble living room in western Mexico. He has been there ever since – sleeping, bathing, defecating and, above all, eating.
“He loved his food,” says Salvador Torres, Jesús’ father. “He would always ask for a second helping.” Today, Jesús has the arteries of a 65-year-old and weighs 200 pounds. The biggest worry is that he is only nine. Jesús is an example – albeit an extreme one – of a public health problem that is sweeping Mexico. According to statistics published last month by the health ministry, the country now has the fattest population in the world, with 70 per cent of adults either overweight or obese.
Obesity-related illnesses are now so widespread that they are beginning to place a severe strain on the health system: the treatment of type 2 diabetes alone consumes more than one-third of the entire social security budget. Estimates suggest that within five years it will account for two-thirds.
“We haven’t been able to keep up,” says Armando Barriguete, a high-ranking official at Mexico’s health ministry.
Mexico’s problem is one becoming increasingly common in poorer countries. Once confined to high income countries, obesity is now dramatically on the rise in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings, according to the World Health Organisation.
Josefina Fausto, a health expert at the University of Guadalajara, says that behind the explosion in obesity in Mexico is a radical change in diet that stems from the country’s increasing insertion into the global economy.
In other words, they are eating a lot of US-inspired junk food. “A century ago, our biggest challenge was malnutrition,” she says. “Today, it is an excess of foods that are rich in cholesterol and heavy in saturated oils, sugar and salt.”
The worsening diet – the health ministry claims that consumption of vegetables has dropped 30 per cent in a decade – is compounded by a seemingly insatiable appetite for soft drinks, in particular Coca-Cola.
According to the US-based soft-drinks manufacturer, Mexicans drank 573 eight US fluid ounce bottles of Coca-Cola products per capita (roughly 136 litres per person) in 2007 – by far the highest consumption in the world. In the US, the second biggest per-capita consumer, people drank a relatively modest 423 bottles in 2007.
In its latest effort to combat obesity, the government this month launched a campaign aimed at getting government employees to exercise twice a week during office hours and take better care of themselves.
On a recent sunny day just before lunchtime in Mexico City, the initial results of the programme were on full display in the gardens of the country’s health ministry.
“Very good, now we are going to stretch our arms out straight and then up,” a keep-fit co-ordinator shouted to a group of red-faced civil servants. “Now we’re going to do some walking.”
So far, at least, it is going down well with the staff. Graciela Godinez, a ministry employee with 28 years of service and a generous girth, feels much better for the two work-outs a week. “It breaks up the day and it increases your energy levels,” she says. “It’s great.”
But Gustavo Orozco, a Mexican doctor and dietary expert, believes the programme is not enough to have any meaningful impact given the huge shift in Mexicans’ eating habits. “It won’t make any difference,” he says.
For the past few years, Dr Orozco has been working closely with Manuel Uribe, a Mexican and once the world’s fattest man. Using a protein-heavy diet, Mr Uribe has managed to lose about 250kg, down from his peak of around 560kg. “I was so big that I couldn’t breathe,” recalls Mr Uribe. “Now I’m living a different life.”
But Mr Barriguete of the health ministry argues that Mexicans need to be less ambitious and more consistent. “We are monumental – we always want to do great things overnight,” he says. “What we really need to do is learn to take small steps.”
