Although obesity is well known and currently a major target of public health efforts in the United States, it has historically been of much less concern for inhabitants of developing countries. At least until recent efforts to address this growing problem have attracted the attention of many in global health. Thirty years ago, the focus was on childhood malnutrition and how to feed a rapidly growing global population, while medical services in developing countries focused on fighting infectious diseases. (Caballero, 2005) Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) is faced with the new pandemic of obesity and the noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) that accompany it. While the challenge of childhood malnutrition is far from gone, rates of tuberculosis and malaria are increasing and AIDS has become a more serious problem than ever. This has created a “double burden” of morbidity that threatens to overwhelm health services in many poor developing countries. (Prentice, 2006) The WHO warns that the burden of obesity, associated with any of the conditions mentioned above, will have a serious and negative impact on populations in developing countries. The obesity pandemic originated in the United States and has spread to Europe and other wealthy countries around the world. nations and has now reached even the poorest countries in the world. The pandemic is actually believed to be transmitted through subsidized agriculture and multinational corporations supplying cheap and highly refined fats, oils and carbohydrates, affordable motorized transport, labor-saving mechanized devices and the seduction of sedentary pastimes like television. (Prentice, 2006) The pandemic will continue to spread for the foreseeable future unless an educational campaign is carried out... middle of paper ...... or across the world? temporal trends among women in 39 low- and middle-income countries (1991-2008). International Journal of Obesity, 36(1), 1114-1120. Martorell, R., Khan, L., Hughes, M. and Grummer-Strawn, L. (2000). Obesity among women in developing countries. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, (54), 247-252. Misra, A. and Khurana, L. (2008). Obesity and metabolic syndrome in developing countries. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 93(11),Popkin, B. (2004). The nutritional transition in developing countries. Development Policy Review, 21(5-6), 581-597. Popkin, B., Adair, L. and Wen Ng, S. (2012). Global nutritional transition and the obesity pandemic in developing countries. Nutrition Reviews, 70(1), 3-21. Prentice, A. (2006). The emerging epidemic of obesity in developing countries. International Journal of Epidemiology, 35(1), 93-99.