For several years, the U.S. has been addressing the issue of childhood obesity. While rates here are higher than abroad, obesity is not just a U.S. problem, but one that prevails across the world, particularly in developing countries.

The Global Burden of Disease study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and released today, found that more than 2 billion humans in the world are overweight or obese. The rates are higher in the Middle East and North Africa region, the China, India and the United States, which accounts for 13 percent of the globe's overweight humans alone, almost as many people as China and India combined.

The increase in obesity is related to parallel increases in health problems, including cancer and diabetes.

As countries develop, the issue only becomes worse. In more than two decades, obesity rates steadily increased around the world despite some public health efforts to curb them. For decades, no country has reported successful decreases in obesity.

"We see no good evidence that the prevalence of obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases is receding anywhere," World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan said earlier this month at the World Health Assembly, citing cheap and accessible processed food and sugary drinks as the main culprit.

"Parts of the world are quite literally eating themselves to death."