Historically, infectious diseases and undernutrition have been the focus of global health care initiatives by international organizations. However, there has been a move in recent years towards the prevention and management of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCD) such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), osteoporosis, diabetes mellitus and cancer. NCDs have spread rapidly and are no longer restricted to highly industrialized countries. For the first time, in 1997 the World Health organization (WHO) reported that NCDs constitute a more significant contribution to ill health throughout the world than do infectious diseases. In contrast to the situation in industrialized countries, it has been shown that in some developing economies, obesity begins much earlier in life and reaches a peak by the early forties. According to WHO estimates, by the year 2020, NCDs will account for approximately three-quarters of all deaths in the developing world. In these societies, rapid modernization is associated with a cluster of NCD and unhealthy lifestyle including smoking, physical inactivity and rapid increase in junk food consumption. This has been described as the "Lifestyle Syndrome" or the "New World Syndrome", which is responsible for the very high rates of mortality in developing nations, and is likely to create an enormous socioeconomic and public health burden for poorer nations in the near future.