Bupkiss

CANBERRA (June 20) - Australia is on track to become the fattest nation, although experts questioned on Friday whether it had overtaken the United States and small Pacific countries for the unenviable title.Around 4 million Australian adults, or 26 percent of the population, were obese, eclipsing the 25 percent rate in the United States, a study by the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute released in Melbourne said. "If we ran a fat Olympics we'd be gold medal winners as the fattest people on earth at the moment," Institute preventative cardiology head Professor Simon Stewart told the Age newspaper.
The report, Australia's Future Fat Bomb, to be presented to a government inquiry into the nation's obesity problem on Friday, said 70 percent of men and 60 percent of women aged 45 to 65 were technically overweight or obese.
In total, 9 million people were too heavy -- almost half the 21 million population -- and 123,000 were at risk of early death over the next 20 years, the study said.
While the report said Australia had overtaken the United States as the fattest nation on the planet, recent U.S. studies show around 34 percent of Americans are overweight or obese.And small Pacific nations top World Health Organization lists, with 94.5 percent of people in tiny Nauru classed as overweight, leading to chronic diabetes problems on the island.
Also this was disturbing:
Here is the startling bottom line: Heavy people's brains may age faster.
If you're overweight or obese in middle age, it can have a devastating effect on your health by causing you to age far faster than normal. According to a study from the San Francisco VA Medical Center, being overweight in your 40s and 50s causes a lower level of certain brain chemicals that signal good brain health and function. Without these chemicals, the brain's aging process speeds up, putting you at a significantly higher risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia.