Childhood obesity increasing worldwide

Driven by the growing availability of fatty, sugary foods and beverages in low- and middle-income countries, 41 million children ages 5 and under are overweight or obese, a number expected to grow to more than 70 million children worldwide during the next decade, a new World Health Organization report says.

Between 1990 and 2014, rates of young children who are overweight or obese have surged to 6.1 percent from 4.8 percent, says a WHO report released Monday. In lower middle-income countries, the number of overweight and obese children younger than 5 has doubled, from 7.5 million to 15.5 million kids.

Forty-eight percent of those overweight children lived in Asia, and 25 percent in Africa.