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NEW YORK — The past 40 years have seen an unprecedented increase in the number of obese adults worldwide, climbing to about 640 million — more than six times the total of 105 million in 1975.

If the trend continues, about one-fifth of adults will be obese by 2025.

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The rate has more than doubled for women and tripled for men, according to an analysis published in the Lancet. The chance of meeting a goal set by the World Health Organization to halt the increase over the next decade is, according to the study, “virtually zero.”

They should be as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof about the tsunami of diabetes that’s coming their way.

Excess weight raises the risk of diabetes, heart disease and other chronic conditions, and governments need to prepare for skyrocketing health costs, Bill Dietz of George Washington University said.

“They should be as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof about the tsunami of diabetes that’s coming their way,” Dietz said. “The cost of this rise in the prevalence of obesity is going to be staggering.”