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Obesity
Epidemic Set to Get Worse
Obesity has spiraled into a worldwide epidemic affecting
250 million adults but a leading nutritional expert believes
the worst is still to come.
Overweight adolescents are on course to fuel an even bigger
global health problem as they mature into obese adults,
he says.
"The younger generation, the generation after us, will
be even more obese than we are, which doesn't make the future
look very promising," Dr. Mikael Fogelholm said in
an interview.
The chairman of the 12th European Congress on Obesity, which
begins in Helsinki on Thursday, said the prevalence of obesity
among adolescents has increased more rapidly than among
the middle-aged population.
"We can't expect that the present generation will die
and we will have a lean generation," added Dr. Fogelholm,
who is also the director of the independent UKK Institute
for Health Promotion Research in Finland.
A steady, and in some cases life-long, diet of high-fat
fast foods and idle hours in front of the television and
computer, has taken its toll on children.
"Most obese adults now had not been obese children,"
Fogelholm said. "They obtained their extra kilos (pounds)
after they were 25 or 30 years old. But now we have more
and more people who are already obese at the age of 10,
15 or 20.
"If the trend goes on, the future doesn't look better.
It looks worse unless we can find a way to prevent obesity."
Along with expanding waistlines, being overweight or obese
increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke
and certain cancer. In the United States, where over half
of the adult population is obese or overweight, obesity
costs about $93 billion a year in medical expenses.
Elsewhere obesity rates range from two percent in some developing
countries, to 80 percent on remote Pacific Islands and about
20 percent in Western countries.
Fogelholm believes the solution to the problem must begin
with changes that encourage people, and particularly youngsters,
to get more exercise and to make healthy food choices. But
he stressed that must include changes in how city centers
are planned, how food is marketed and the sizes of portions
in which it is served.
Ministries of transport, environment and education should
be involved in health policies, he added.
"It's a complex phenomenon especially from a behavioral
viewpoint," he said.
"If you think of smoking -- people either smoke or
they don't smoke. But everyone has to eat and what they
eat, how much and the amount of exercise they get make weight
control a very complex behavior."
Article Source: Reuters Health
Article Author: Patricia Reaney
Net Reference 89
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