WORLD: Globesity

OBESITY IN KENYA – EAST AFRICA

November 2012 – Ruth Gathu takes a shower after a workout session with her nutritionist. Ruth Gathu is a thirty-five year old Kenyan woman who works as an administrator. She lives alone, is not in a relationship and has no children.

She weights 299 pounds and weighs 175 centimetres. She has a BMI of 44.3.

She says: “In Kenya, people don’t spend money on nutrition programs”.
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OBESITY IN KENYA – EAST AFRICA

November 2012 – Ruth Gathu takes a shower after a workout session with her nutritionist. Ruth Gathu is a thirty-five year old Kenyan woman who works as an administrator. She lives alone, is not in a relationship and has no children.

She weights 299 pounds and weighs 175 centimetres. She has a BMI of 44.3.

She says: “In Kenya, people don’t spend money on nutrition programs”.
“Obesity is in all the social class in Kenya, the rich, middle class and poor.”

Ruth likes her body, but she decides to reduce her weight, following the nutrition program and advices of her best friend who works as a nutritionist in Nairobi.
Together, they go swimming and work out weekly.

Nairobi has a high prevalence of overweight and obesity among women, especially those in the middle and upper class.

Like elsewhere in the world, the main drivers of obesity in Kenya are rapid urbanization and westernization, that have resulted in changing lifestyles such as increased consumption of “unhealthy diets” and adoption of sedentary lifestyles.
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