Global progress against obesity
"unacceptably slow"
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[February 19, 2015]
By Kate Kelland
LONDON (Reuters) - Global progress toward
tackling obesity has been "unacceptably slow", health experts said on
Wednesday, with only one in four countries implementing a policy on
healthy eating before 2010.
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In a series of studies published in The Lancet medical journal,
researchers said that in less than a generation, rates of child
obesity have risen dramatically worldwide, yet few countries have
taken regulatory steps to protect children or implemented
recommended healthy food policies.
"Our understanding of obesity must be completely reframed if we are
to halt and reverse the global obesity epidemic," said Christina
Roberto of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who worked
on one of the studies.
"On one hand, we need to acknowledge that individuals bear some
responsibility for their health, and on the other hand recognize
that today's food environments exploit people's biological,
psychological, social and economic vulnerabilities, making it easier
for them to eat unhealthy foods."
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According to World Health Organization data, 39 percent of adults
worldwide were overweight in 2014, and 13 percent were obese. Some
42 million children under the age of five were overweight or obese
in 2013.
New data in The Lancet series suggest children in the United States
consume an average of 200kcal per day more than they did in the
1970s -- equivalent to $400-worth of food per child per year, or $20
billion a year for the U.S. food industry.
Tim Lobstein of the World Obesity Federation, a co-researcher on the
series, argued that the food industry has a special interest in
targeting children, since repeated exposure to processed foods and
sweetened drinks in infancy builds taste preferences, brand loyalty
and high profits.
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"Fat children are an investment in future sales," he said, adding
that this year the global market for processed infant foods is seen
at $19 billion, up from $13.7 billion in 2007.
The researchers called for tighter supervision and regulation of the
food supply, including an international code of food marketing to
protect children's health; regulating food nutritional quality in
schools; taxes on unhealthy products; subsidies for healthy foods
for poorer families; and mandatory food labeling to prompt industry
to produce healthier foods.
(Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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