MEXICO CITY — Fueled by the rising popularity of soft drinks and fast-food restaurants, Mexico has become the second fattest nation in the world.
Mexican health officials say it could surpass the U.S. as the most obese country within 10 years if trends continue.
More than 71 percent of Mexican women and 66 percent of Mexican men are overweight, according to the latest national surveys
"People don't eat right anymore," said Garcia Garduno , mixing a drink of strawberries and pineapple. "Instead of coming here and purchasing a fruit
drink, they prefer to walk across the street and buy fried pork chips. That's why so many Mexicans are obese."
In 1989, fewer than 10 percent of Mexican adults were overweight. No one in the country even talked about obesity back then, said Barry Popkin , a
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill professor who studies global weight gain. Experts were too concerned with poverty and hunger.
Some Mexicans say there's less space on an already crowded Mexico City subway because riders are getting larger. At a flea market in the south of the
city, vendors hawk clothes brought from the United States made for overweight individuals.
Francisco Princegali knew he was eating too much junk food when he bent down last week and heard a tear.
"I ripped my pants because of the fat," said Princegali, who's 20, crumbling up a wrapper of sweetened bread he'd purchased from a vendor. "I think
I'm addicted to junk food."
Virginia Soriano , 35, said it was difficult teaching her children good eating habits when they were flooded with advertising for fatty foods. Naomi,
her daughter, says her favorite things to eat are McDonald's Chicken McNuggets and Coca-Cola. The 6-year-old sometimes pushes away her dinner plate if
it has too many vegetables, Soriano said.
"She'll say, 'This has no taste,' " Soriano said. "She wants McDonald's or Kentucky Fried Chicken ."
More than 70,000 Mexicans die each year from diabetes-related conditions, Cordova said. He said that the diabetes burden was draining Mexico's already
strained health services and that if trends continued, the country's health-care system would be bankrupt within a decade.
"If we don't stop this, we're going to run out of money to treat the sick," Cordova said.
