ABSTRACT
During the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in developed countries. This increasing prevalence of obesity in developed countries has become a very important public health issue. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are more than 1.7 billion overweight adults in the world, with one-fth of them meeting the denition of being clinically obese [1]. The prevalence of obesity was 32.2% among adult men and 35.5% among adult women in 2007-2008 [2]. Obesity is the most prevalent nutritional problem and plays a signicant role in the pathogenesis of hypertension, diabetes mellitus (type 2 DM), heart disease, and some forms of cancer. It is associated with a moderate increase in all-cause mortality and contributes to morbidity and social disadvantage [3,4].
