The Global Challenge Of Metabolic Disorders

Metabolic disorders are conditions that disrupt normal metabolism and the process of converting food to energy at the cellular level. They affect the ability of the cell to perform critical biochemical reactions that involve the processing or transport of proteins (amino acids), carbohydrates (sugars and starches), or lipids (fatty acids).

Metabolic disorders can take many forms, with obesity and diabetes being the most common. The worldwide prevalence of obesity has nearly tripled between 1975 and 2016. Once considered a high-income country problem, obesity is now on the rise even in low- and middle-income countries. Overall, about 13% of the world’s adult population (11% of men and 15% of women) was considered obese in 2016. In that same year, it was estimated that 41 million children under the age of 5, and 340 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 19, were considered overweight or obese.