Obesity 'as bad as climate risk'

reposted from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7043639.stm

Obesity 'as bad as climate risk'

Alan Johnson said a "cultural and societal shift" was needed

The public health threat posed by obesity in the UK is a "potential crisis on the scale of climate change", the health secretary has warned.

Alan Johnson said the magnitude of the problem was becoming clear for the first time and "it is in everybody's interest to turn things round".

Details have emerged of a government study which says half the population could be obese within 25 years.

Ministers are drawing up a long-term action plan to tackle obesity.

Greater efforts

The government-commissioned Foresight report is expected to report on Wednesday.

It suggests the cost of the epidemic, in terms of health care provision and lost work hours, could reach £45bn a year by 2050, according to the Observer.

Professor Klim McPherson, of Oxford University, and Tim Marsh, of the National Heart Foundation, predict that

within 15 years 86% of men will be overweight - but not necessarily obese -
(currently 73% - see figure 1 at top)
and within 20 years, 70% of women.

The study showed there had to be "further and faster" efforts beyond existing anti-obesity measures to encourage exercise and healthy eating, Mr Johnson said.

We will only succeed if the problem is recognised, owned and addressed at every level and every part of society Alan Johnson, health secretary

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has backed a long-term action plan to fight obesity, funded by money earmarked in Tuesday's Comprehensive Spending Review.

The government is also due to ask the Food Standards Agency to probe the use of unhealthy "trans-fats", which have been linked to coronary heart disease, in fast food.

But Mr Johnson said individuals also had to take responsibility for their own health as part of a "cultural and societal shift".

He said: "There is no single solution to tackle obesity and it cannot be tackled by government action alone.

"We will only succeed if the problem is recognised, owned and addressed at every level and every part of society."

Life expectancy

Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo told the BBC that a longer term view needed to be taken of the obesity issue.

She said: "The government has been doing a lot already in terms of healthy foods in schools, sports activity in schools, labelling of food, working with young people.

"This report was part of the development of our strategies.

"But... if we don't act, what will happen in health terms for individuals and for our communities in 10, 20 years' time is really something we that we need to face up to, and that means looking at everything."

Dr Colin Waine - who chairs the National Obesity Forum - said that

in terms of its impact on society, the health threat posed by obesity "will hit us much earlier than climate change".

He added:

"We are now in a situation where levels of childhood obesity will lead to the first cut in life expectancy for 200 years. These children are likely to die before their parents."

reposted from: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gn5vhYdfDa9UWNdAxIGAh80YFp6QD8SB6G800

An overweight person eats in London, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007. Britain's health secretary called Wednesday for a fundamental shift in the way the nation tackles obesity after a study said dramatic action was required to stop the majority of the population from becoming obese by 2050. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Report Warns UK of Burgeoning Obesity

By TARIQ PANJA – Oct 17, 2007

LONDON (AP) — Most British citizens could be obese by 2050, a new government report warns, http://www.foresight.gov.uk/Obesity/Obesity_final/14.pdf

and the nation's health secretary called Wednesday for a fundamental shift in the way the nation tackles obesity.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson didn't blame British eating habits, calling obesity "a consequence of abundance, convenience and underlying biology."

"As this report starkly demonstrates, people in the U.K. are not more gluttonous than previous generations and individual action alone will not be sufficient," he said in a speech to Parliament.

The obesity analysis by the Foresight program, run by the Office for Science, concludes that excess weight has become the norm and described Britain as an "obesogenic" society.

Obesity costs Britain the equivalent of $90 million a year already. Obese people have a greater risk for life-threatening conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

The number of overweight and obese people has tripled in the last 25 years. One in four adults are now obese, according to the most recent Health Study for England.

By comparison, about one-third of adults in the United States are obese; two-thirds are overweight.

The Foresight report projects that by 2050, 60 percent of British men, 50 percent of women and a quarter of children and young people will be obese unless drastic action is taken.

The study's authors, who based their findings on research from 250 experts over two years, said there was scant proof that current anti-obesity policies worked. The government pledged to draw up new plans to combat bulging waistlines.

Solutions to the problem will not be found "in exhortations to greater individual responsibility or in the futility of isolated initiatives," the health secretary said.

The report made a series of proposals:

_Earlier action when young children start gaining too much weight.

_Targeting people who are at increased risk.

_Controlling high-calorie foods.

_Changing the design of towns to make them more physically demanding.

_Increasing employer responsibility.

"There is a danger that the moment to act radically and dramatically will be missed," said Sir David King, the government's chief scientific adviser and head of the Foresight report. "It is a problem that is getting worse every year."

King and his fellow authors said obesity was inevitable in developed societies like Britain, where convenience foods, labor-saving devices, cars and sedentary work are part of daily life.

"We are facing a far worse scenario than even our gloomiest predictions," said Philip James, chairman of the International Obesity TaskForce, in a statement. "We need to respond rapidly and decisively."

On the Net:

• http://www.foresight.gov.uk/Obesity/Obesity_final/14.pdf

Child obesity alert plan pondered

reposted from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7055735.stm

Child obesity alert plan pondered

Obesity is linked to a number of health problems

Parents may be warned if their children are found to be overweight, under Department of Health (DoH) proposals.

Children in England and Wales are currently measured at the ages of five and 10 but parents are informed of the results only if they request them.

But the figures may be given to parents automatically under the new plans.

The DoH said ministers were prepared to go further and faster in the fight against childhood obesity, although no firm decisions had been made.

Between a quarter and a third of children are thought to be overweight and doctors fear there will be an epidemic of poor health related to obesity in coming decades.

An obese person dies on average nine years earlier than somebody of normal weight, while a very obese person's life is cut short by an average of 13 years.

Under the proposals being considered, information obtained under the national measurement programme could be given to parents automatically.

And involvement in the measurement scheme may become compulsory unless people choose to opt out of the scheme.

Early education

Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said child obesity was a "huge problem to overcome".

He said: "It's a good thing in the sense that if the government expects parents to [have] prime responsibility for the raising of their children, it is absolutely essential that they should know what the healthy range of weight is.

"We would think, in fact, this whole thing has got to start earlier.

"If you start earlier, around the age of two and three from nursery, then you've got the time to start to implant the healthy eating, healthy exercise education, which will then carry them through school."

Mr Fry added that the Forum would even like to start to promote this mode of lifestyle "from conception".

A recent report by the Foresight Programme argued that dramatic and comprehensive action was required to stop the majority of us becoming obese by 2050.

Its authors predicted that if current trends continue, in that year, 60% of men and half of women will be obese and cases of type 2 diabetes will rise by 70%.

The report also suggested that cases of stroke will rise by 30% by the middle of the century and cases of coronary heart disease will rise by 20%.