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Abstract

The global obesity epidemic continues to rise at alarming rates with concerning projections about the cost to public health the epidemic poses. This proposal calls for the urgent need to move away from simply problematising the growth of obesity in LMIC but to introduce more context-specific, effective methods of understanding the phenomenon in various parts of the world. Because obesity has traditionally been seen as a First World problem, obesity prevention and solutions are limited to socio-environmental factors of the Western world and lags worryingly behind the current reality of obesity. It is imperative that the international community direct resources to better contextualise the rise of obesity in different countries with an emphasis on historical and contemporary international food systems and on ethnographic evidence to recognise the more varied and everyday experiences of living with or at the risk of obesity. In addition to qualitative methods, current quantitative indicators to understand obesity in international development must diversify in order to gain insight into obesity beyond the current tendency to focus on simply the number of those living with obesity or related conditions. In short, global obesity prevention is far too limited and must incorporate many more ways of understanding the causal links between socio environmental factors and obesity before introducing effective solutions.

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