U.S. Big Bellies Set New World Record

The world population has clambered past 7 billion. Out of all those people, barely 6 percent live in North America. Still, statisticians have now shown, our 6 percent is lugging around 34 percent of the total human biomass because we’re so overweight.

That means that even though our North American population represents only about one of every 16 people living on the Earth, we embody one-third of the world’s total human body weight.

The numbers were compiled by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In contrast to North America, the population of Asia represents 61 percent of the world’s population but only 13 percent of the world’s biomass.