The Pacific Islands, east of Australia, top the list of countries with the highest percentage of their populations obese Experts have blamed the soaring obesity rates on nations colonising the islands and introducing Western diets You might think the U.S. is the most obese nation in the world - but if you do, you are wrong. Soaring rates of obesity in the Pacific Islands, nations in the South Pacific Ocean east of Australia and Fiji, have shot to the top of the worldwide obesity scale. Previously it has been theorised that Pacific Islanders are genetically predisposed to obesity. But experts now say the introduction of Western diets to the islands are to blame for the problem. American Samoa, found south of Samoa, tops the chart, with 75 per cent of the population reported as obese. Nauru and the Cook Islands, also found in the South Pacific Ocean, come in second and third places with 71 per cent and 63 per cent of the population obese. The islands were colonised by Australian, American, New Zealand, British or French nations after the Second World War, and the diets and social changes introduced blamed for soaring obesity rates. These colonising nations sought to ‘civilise’ the islanders and introduce ‘proper’ food habits, research has shown. They encouraged dependency on imported food, meaning the local fishing and farming industries on the islands died out.