The number of women considered obese throughout Australia has increased by 30 percent over the last decade, according to a study. Researchers at Deakin University in Australia also found that morbid obesity (the highest on the scale) increased by 68 percent during the same time period.

Obesity has become so prevalent that many now have a distorted view of what a healthy person should look like.

“I think that people are not really aware of what normal weight is any more,” Heather Yeatman, the president of the Public Health Association of Australia, said in The Sydney Morning Herald. “If you have got 60-plus per cent of people overweight or obese that has become normal viewing these days, not only for children but for parents as well.”

Once considered only a problem in Western nations, obesity has become a global health issue. It is estimated that 500 million adults worldwide are obese and 1.5 billion are overweight or obese, the Harvard School of Public Health reported.

“It has been suggested that this current generation of children is likely to be outlived by its parents. We are seeing increasing levels of obesity amongst children and teenagers which is not only blighting their lives but can even reduce their life expectancy levels,” medic8.com stated.