10 Fattest Countries in MENA

I think it wouldn’t come as a big surprise to anyone if we told you that the MENA region is one of the fattest areas in the world. In a study published last year by the Daily Mail, countries from the Middle East and North Africa occupied 14 positions in the top 50 fattest countries in the world.

The study ranked nations according to average Body Mass Index or BMI, which is generally seen as an approximate measure of overall obesity.

We went through the global rankings to give you the top 10 fattest countries in the MENA region:

Coming in at 48 th globally, Tunisia rounds off our list of the fattest MENA countries and with couscous being their national food, and the “best in North Africa”, we’re hardly surprised.

A little ways down the list at 46 is Iran with a rice-heavy cuisine earning them a plump position on our list and their to-die-for street sweets cementing it.

Boasting a diet emulated the world over, the Lebanese Mediterranean formula sees them bumping up the fat nations of the MidEast rankings.

The first Gulf entry also finds itself at 28 th globally and with a national treasure like machboos we’re only shocked they’re not higher.

If you’ve ever had a healthy feast of mansaf, you’ll know exactly why they’ve ranked so high.

Starting off our top 5 countdown is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with a worrying 27.3 BMI and more variants of rice dishes than we have the time to list.

The island nation might be tiny in terms of land mass but that’s where small stops, because Bahrain has a global ranking of 13, a regional one of 4, and fresh fish by the tonne.

Another Gulf state with seafood on the menu, the UAE is in the global top ten with a mouth-watering Emirati cuisine to offer.

Two spots above the UAE is Egypt at 6 th with no signs of slowing down. We blame basbousa .

And finally, number one. Kuwait is both the GLOBAL and the MENA numero uno. Let that sink in.