While we tend to think of obesity as a problem of the developed world, it is simply not the case anymore, with 62% of these 1.9 billion overweight or obese people residing in low and middle-income countries.

The number of people around the world considered to be obese has more than doubled since 1980, while there are now over 42 million children under the age of five whoare also said to be either overweight or obese. The obesity problem is not only spreading but it is also concentrating in certain places. More than half of the world’s obese population now live in just 10 countries – the US, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Russia, Pakistan, China, India, Indonesia and Egypt. The US alone accounts for 13% of the obese population, while China and India account for a combined 15%.

The latest figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that Ireland is on course to become the most obese country in Europe by 2030. Obesity in women is predicted to soar from 23% to 57% while the proportion of obese Irish men is expected to rise from 26% to 48%.

The escalating obesity levels around the world have mushroomed the prevalence of non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, lung disease and diabetes, which now account for 63% of deaths worldwide.

As a result, health conscious consumers are paying closer attention to their diets than ever before. Traditional fast-food chains and soft drink companies, obvious targets for health conscious consumers, are being hit hard by this fundamental shift in consumer attitudes.

In an attempt to clean up their unhealthy images, fast food chains are reducing fat in their fries, offering fruit and salads with kids’ meals and cutting portion sizes, while soft drink manufacturers are using natural sweeteners, such as stevia in place of sugar. For people in the US, sugary beverages are the single most important source of sugar, accounting for 10% of sugar in the diet. The average American consumes a massive 170 litres of soda every year, far more than the average in any other country.

Despite this, sales of soft drinks in the US have been declining for nine years as consumers look to cut more and more sugar from their diets. At one time, sales of sugary drinks accounted for 50% of the total beverage market in the US. Over the last decade, this share has fallen to 40% and is continuing to decline as consumers opt for juices, energy drinks and bottled water.

In an effort to stem the tide, beverage companies have tried everything, from Pepsico signing Beyoncé on a $50m endorsement deal to Coca Cola hiring fashion designer Marc Jacobs as its “creative director”. But sales continue to fall.

The biggest problem for the likes of Pepsico and Coca Cola is that so much of their business is tied to the sale of sugary soft drinks. Even the sales of diet drinks with artificial sweeteners are falling as consumers react to concerns linking consumption of diet soft drinks to increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, particularly in older women.

Both Pepsico and Coca Cola have made significant efforts in recent years to diversify their product portfolio away from just soft drinks. Last year, Coca Cola unveiled a premium milk drink called Fairlife, while also purchasing a 17% stake in Monster Energy at a cost of $2.15bn.

Coca Cola also took full control of the UK-based Innocent Drinks Company in 2013 in a bid to grow its share of the European smoothie and juice market. Despite this, Coca Cola still derives more than 75% of its revenue from soft drink sales. Rival company Pepsico appears to be in a much stronger position, earning less than half its profits from soft drink sales, thanks to its stable of crisp and snack brands.

Invisible sugar

There is an increasing stockpile of evidence linking sugar overconsumption as a contributing factor to health problems, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Unsurprisingly, sales of visible sugar products such as bags of actual sugar and fizzy drinks have been steadily in decline for the past number of years. However, consumers are now becoming increasingly aware of ‘‘invisible sugar’’ – the added sugar found in almost all processed products and food. During the 1970s, the food industry cut fat out of products when dietary fats were linked to heart attacks. To make up for the loss of flavour, food companies added sugar in the form of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). From bread to meat to cheese and yoghurts, almost 80% of packaged food products contain fructose syrup. Even the tablet you take for a headache is probably sugar-coated.

In response to all the sugar in our diets, there is a growing clamour for governments to intervene and combat obesity directly through taxation on sugar. In 2013, Mexico introduced a one peso tax ($0.08) on every litre of sugary drinks sold to tackle the country’s increasing problem with obesity. After the US, Mexico is the highest consumer of soft drinks per capita. Similarly, Norway has introduced an excise tax on refined sugar products while France, Finland and Hungary have introduced taxes on soft drinks and other high sugar foods, all in an effort to combat rising obesity levels.

The major players in the food industry have naturally baulked at the idea of a sugar tax instead insisting the industry can be self-regulating. However, the growing bad name for added sugar is not helping their cause, with many likening its toxicity and addictiveness to that of tobacco and alcohol.

Read more from this year's KPMG/Irish Farmers Journal Agribusiness report here.