The Fat Europe

If your BMI is higher than 30, you're technically obese. This map shows how many people per European country suffer from that medical condition.

Are you surprised?

In Rubens' time, to pack a few extra pounds was the privilege of the powerful. Hence the adjective Rubenesque, describing the curvaceous ladies that fill out his paintings, who were rotund because they were rich, and all the more desirable for it.

A few centuries on, thanks to industrial farming, food is no longer a status symbol and the specter of famine has receded from our collective consciousness. In fact, food abundance is such that the link between calorie intake and social status has not so much been obliterated as it has reversed.

In the developed world, virtually everybody now has easy access to cheap, high-calorie fast food and ready meals. Keeping the pounds off requires more time, effort and money than most people can afford. Especially if you live in a 'food dessert', where fast food is plentiful but the elements of a healthy, balanced diet are difficult to find.

As a result, the average Body Mass Index (BMI) has shot up across the developed world (and beyond).

If your BMI is under 18.5, you're commonly accepted as being underweight. The 'normal' weight range is from 18.5 to 25. You're overweight from 25 to 30, and obese if you're over 30. Obesity is a medical condition. It means you've accumulated enough body fat for it to negatively impact your health. If you're obese, you have a higher risk of getting diabetes, osteoarthritis and certain types of cancer and/or cardiovascular diseases.

At The Good Fridge we have made it our mission to help people around the world shop healthier food, and as a result help reverse the global obesity epidemic.