Obesity in East Asia

The prevalence of obesity has been dramatically increased for the last three decades worldwide. Since there is a difference in defining obesity, especially in abdominal obesity, direct comparison of the obesity prevalence may not be appropriate between Asian countries and others. However, based on data for the recent two decades, obesity epidemic is also observed in the countries in East Asia in parallel with marked environmental and lifestyle changes. This review focuses on the recent trends of general and abdominal obesity in East Asian countries including China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. In addition to data for obesity epidemic, a large body of evidence on the “metabolically obese” phenotype in a normal weight population has been reported in the population in east countries. This phenotype is important in the public health perspective, because normal weight individuals with metabolic obesity may have obesity-related morbidities as well, especially in an Asian population who are more liable to increased visceral fat and insulin resistance than any other race or ethnicity with the same level of body mass index. In the other way, “healthy obesity” in an obese population has been proposed, based on the fact that not all obese individuals are uniformly affected with cardio-metabolic abnormalities; however, this may not be the case in East Asian population.