Thai women are now officially the second fattest group of people in Asia.

Only Malaysian women tip the scales worse on average.

The head of Thailand’s Diabetes’ Association painted a grim picture of a nation getting more and more obese.

Poor diet and insufficient exercise are to blame – with diabetes, heart conditions and blocked arteries all rising rapidly as a result.

Wannee Nitthiyanan was speaking to Daily News about the obesity explosion confronting Thailand and its overstretched health care system.

She said that 8,000 people were dying each year in Thailand from diabetes. Figures showed that in the five years from 2009 to 2014 the number with the disease in Thailand went from 3.3 to 4.8 million.

But worst of all today 2 million people don’t even know they have the condition that means they are not receiving treatment and can develop other serious conditions.

And 7.7 million are at risk of developing diabetes in the kingdom.

Wannee said that the problem of overweight people was worse in the towns and cities than elsewhere. She called the rise in obesity an explosion.

And the problem was especially prevalent in the female population making Thai women the second fattest group in Asia after Malaysians.

They are also second in the death rate stakes from such diseases as diabetes and heart and artery conditions.

She blamed poor diets and insufficient exercise for the diabetes epidemic that is costing the country tens of billions of baht a year in out-patient and in-patient health care.

(Source:-Daily News)