One in every three adults in Turkey obese

Over thirty per cent of all adults of 19 years of age and above in Turkey are considered to be extremely overweight, a study conducted by the Turkish Health Ministry has shown. Thirty-five per cent of the Turkish adults fell in the category of overweight while 33 per cent of them were normal and 2 per cent were slim as per Body Mass Index, or BMI, classifications. "We are planning to decrease the obesity rate to 25 per cent by 2017. At the same time we are planning to increase exercise rate to 50 per cent from a current 28 per cent among 12 years and older by 2017," Mehmet Muezzinoglu, Turkey's health minister, told lawmakers in a budget committee meeting. Muezzinoglu warned that salt consumption in Turkey was three times higher than the amount the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended.