HAVANA, July 6 (Xinhua) -- More than 42 percent of Cuba's population is carrying a few extra pounds, with obesity becoming a serious health problem in the Caribbean nation, said a health expert on Friday.

About 47 percent of the overweight people are women and the most worrying fact is that 13 percent of the obese are children, said Lilian Valdivia, executive from the Havana-based National Center for Minimal Access Surgery, citing a national survey carried out by the country's Health Ministry this year.

"This is serious, because if the right measures are not taken in time, these children will become obese teenagers and later adults with more risks to suffer from hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolaemia, and major incidence of heart and cerebrovascular diseases," said the doctor.

Valdivia said that obesity is preventable from childhood. A person becomes overweight simply because of bad nutrition habits.

"Parents give often more cookies, soft drinks and candies than fruits to children as snacks," she said.

The expert said good nutrition is given by a balanced diet. "First cereals and fruits, then vegetables, followed by the proteins as a contribution of essential amino acids," she said.

Valdivia called for people to realize the harmful effects of inadequate dietary habits on human health and stressed that every person has the choice to prevent or stop obesity.

According to the Health Ministry of Cuba, with an 18.1 percent increase over recent years in the number of overweight women in the country and a rise of 11.4 percent in regards to men, the island's health authorities have expressed their concerns over the increasing rate of obesity across all age groups and of both genders, saying that being overweight has brought serious health problems as well as social and economic costs.