Body Image, Weight Loss Strategies Vary Worldwide
Do perceptions of physical appearance — specifically, what constitutes a healthy weight — vary throughout the world?
According to a recent 52-country survey by Nielsen, some of these attitudes are universal: almost two-thirds (60%) of the world’s population struggle with their weight — 50% with overweight and 10% with underweight issues.
But as Jonathan Banks, Business Insights Director, Nielsen, notes in the January issue of Nielsen’s “Consumer Insight” online newsletter, tactics for paring pounds — and body image — vary by country.
North Americans, for instance, self-identify as “very overweight” at double the rate of people in Emerging Markets – and at a 30% higher rate than Asia-Pacific and European residents.
In contrast, Asia Pacific ranked as the “most underweight” region, with more than half of respondents from these countries scoring themselves as “underweight” (12%) or “about the right weight” (41%).
Read the full article.
View the latest issue of “Consumer Insight.”
I would say that in the west we are so so much more obsessed with our body image. We have so much more time to be so and disposable income as well. For certain countries its just survival. They are more concerned with what they are actually going to eat that day than what they look like.