( CNN ) -- `` I saw these seats before the tournament began but it 's not a good way to deal with it . It 's a kind of segregation , '' explains Dr. Guilherme Cotta , a bariatric ( weight-loss ) surgeon in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil . Cotta is referring to the 4,750 extra-wide seats made available in the stadiums of this year 's World Cup to accommodate Brazil 's burgeoning obesity problem . Set aside at the ends of rows throughout the stadium , the low-backed , wide-set seats for obese people have been built in accordance with Brazilian law , in which obesity is classed as a disability and must be accommodated . After their national team 's humiliating exit from the World Cup , Brazilians ' immediate concerns might be the country 's footballing future , rather than its health , but obesity has become mainstream in Brazilian society and is continuing to rise . In 2012 , around one in seven Brazilians were classed as obese . Globally , Brazil is far behind countries such as the United States and Mexico , where around a third of people are obese , but the concern is the rapid rate of weight gain . The country once vulnerable to malnutrition and the associated health impacts , such as impaired growth , is instead now vulnerable to obesity and resulting heart disease and diabetes . In 1975 just 19 % of Brazilian men and 29 % of Brazilian women were overweight : In 2014 those figures are now 54 % and 48 % respectively . `` The transition to becoming overweight has been rapid in the whole of Latin America over the past 20 years and countries have gone from having below 10 % of their population overweight to over 50 % , '' explains Ricardo Uauy , Professor of Public Health Nutrition at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine . `` Brazil is very diverse -- in the south it is like Europe but in the north you have regions of poverty and then in the Amazon basin you have rural indigenous populations , '' he explains . `` But all over the country low-income populations have become dependent on food that is high in both carbohydrates and sugars . '' This change in consumption has led to a rapid change in weight and therefore health . Cotta operates on obese people who come to him with no other hope , in a country once known for its beautiful beach bodies . `` When I first started as a bariatric surgeon I had maybe one patient a week , but now I have five to 10 per week '' explains Cotta , who has been treating obese patients for 10 years . `` At first it was people wanting to be beautiful again , but now people are coming from across the country with a sense to be healthy . '' Bariatric surgery involves a range of surgical procedures with the overall aim of reducing a patient 's appetite and food consumption . It is , in Cotta 's eyes , a last resort for patients who have become `` morbidly obese '' and is not for those who are simply overweight . The key to helping them is a change in diet and consumption habits , which have changed extensively in recent years . Uauy puts it down to changes in the food people now have access to . `` Healthy foods have become more expensive , '' he says . Communities across the country -- both urban and rural -- have reduced their intake of fruit and vegetables to include more meat , sugar and processed foods . Globalization has enabled even the most rural of residents to access processed foods ; Nestle , for example , has provided scheduled boats since 2010 that serve as floating supermarkets for communities residing along the Amazon . Remote communities can now buy branded goods and often to choose those instead of local farm produce . `` In Brazil , being thin is associated with poverty , so culture has accepted being heavier as a desirable trait , '' says Uauy . This dramatic change in food culture has made cardiovascular disease and stroke the leading cause of death in the country according to Uauy -- followed closely by diabetes . Public health teams are calling for a change in attitudes towards health . `` The healthy choices need to become the easy choices , '' explains Uauy . `` The poor are growing as fast as the rich and everyone needs to understand more about what they are eating . '' This is n't a problem unique to Brazil . However , the Brazilian government , and ministry of health , are taking the matter seriously and have been heralded for their recent projects issuing food guidelines for the public and creating programs for schools to source 40 % of their food locally as childhood obesity is approaching adult levels . Cotta believes in the power of changing national eating habits . `` Surgery is a radical way to treat obesity and only for the patients I see , for which it is a necessity to live , '' he says . But he believes it may be necessary to target key populations at first . `` Morbid obesity is concentrated inside the city so we need to make changes there . ''
More than half of Brazilians are now overweight and 1 in 7 are obese . Cardiovascular disease and stroke are leading causes of death in Brazil , says expert . Extra-wide seats made available for obese people at 2014 World Cup .