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Tag: obesity

  • Global adult obesity set to exceed 1.53bn by 2035 – Report

    Global adult obesity set to exceed 1.53bn by 2035 – Report

    The World Obesity Federation, in its latest World Obesity Atlas report, highlights the alarming surge in obesity rates among children and adolescents worldwide, urging immediate preventive actions to secure healthier future generations.

    Rising obesity rates globally underscore significant disparities in healthcare and nutrition, disproportionately affecting the most economically disadvantaged populations.

    According to statistics from the Atlas, 79% of adults classified as overweight or obese will reside in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) by 2035, with 88% of overweight and obese children also expected to be in LMICs by the same year.

    Furthermore, the number of adults living with obesity is projected to escalate from 0.81 billion in 2020 to 1.53 billion by 2035.

    World Obesity Day, observed globally on March 4th, serves as a call to action to address the escalating global obesity crisis. It presents an opportunity for governments worldwide to reaffirm their commitment to combating this pressing issue and striving towards a healthier and more equitable future for all.

    The media highlights that the World Obesity Federation stands as the sole global entity exclusively dedicated to addressing obesity.

    This organization unites member bodies committed to tackling obesity-related challenges, comprising professionals from scientific, medical, research, and advocacy spheres across over 90 regional and national obesity associations.

    As a leading collaborator with global agencies on obesity, including the World Health Organization, the Federation holds formal consultative status endorsed by the World Health Assembly.

    In a statement preceding World Obesity Day, the Federation emphasized, “One of the key findings is that no area of the world is immune from the effects of obesity, and the poorest suffer the most, at ever younger ages.”

    “Contrary to public perception, lower-income countries are increasingly leading the way in terms of early disability and death due to obesity and the diseases it is driving, including diabetes and heart disease,”

    The Atlas highlighted a direct correlation between greenhouse gas emissions associated with a nation’s progress and the increasing prevalence of obesity, evident in both the Global South and the Global North. This underscores the profound connection between environmental variables and obesity.

    Moreover, it presented convincing evidence demonstrating that the absence of obesity management within healthcare systems is fueling the prevalence of major noncommunicable diseases, such as cancer and diabetes.

    The Chief Executive Officer of the World Obesity Federation, Johanna Ralston said, “The release of the 2024 Global Atlas highlights the imperative for a paradigm shift in our approach to tackling obesity. We need to stop false tradeoffs between food and health, young and old, developed and developing country, and recognize this is a serious, global challenge that calls for multisectoral solutions and coordinated action,”

    The 2024 Atlas emphasizes the role of economic development drivers in shaping obesity patterns.

    In terms of global deaths associated with high Body Mass Index, the Atlas reveals that 78% of cases occur among adults in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), surpassing the 22% in high-income nations.

    Furthermore, it highlights that 80% of Disability-Adjusted Life Years are linked to high BMI among adults in LMICs, contrasting with only 20% in high-income countries.

    “It’s a common misconception that obesity – and its myriad health implications – are only limited to certain countries in the Global North,’ said Director of the Healthier Societies Programme at the George Institute for Global Health, Kent Buse.”

    He added, “But the barriers to healthy and affordable foods, to active transport and much-needed medical support, are not limited to what people likely consider to be ‘rich’ countries and governments all over the world need to implement policies that help communities gain access to healthy food and responsive health systems now. The projections in the Global Atlas make very clear what the alternative is and it is a frightening prospect.”

    Obesity and planetary health are directly correlated, according to the 2024 Atlas. BMI levels can rise in nations that are experiencing rapid economic growth, and this can have a variety of negative effects on the environment.

    WOF President, Louise Baur, observed, “With increasing economic development, we see increased levels of high BMI. We also see a similar correlation between high BMI and GHG emissions, increased urban population, plastic waste usage and insufficient physical activity.

    “Furthermore, obesity rates are rising—at a very concerning rate—among children and adolescents globally. Measures targeting this demographic are crucial to ensure healthier future generations.”

  • Over 4 billion people to be obese by 2035 – World Obesity Federation

    Over 4 billion people to be obese by 2035 – World Obesity Federation

    The World Obesity Federation predicts that if no action is taken, by 2035, more than half of the world’s population would be classified as obese or overweight.

    According to the estimate, more than four billion people will be affected, with infant mortality rates climbing the fastest.

    The largest increases are anticipated in low- or middle-income nations in Asia and Africa.

    According to the analysis, the yearly expense of obesity would exceed $4 trillion (£3.3 trillion) by 2035.

    The federation’s president, Prof. Louise Baur, characterized the report’s results as a strong warning to nations to take action now or suffer consequences in the future.

    The report in particular highlights the rising rates of obesity among children and teenagers, with rates expected to double from 2020 levels among both boys and girls.

    Prof Baur said the trend was “particularly worrying”, adding that “governments and policymakers around the world need to do all they can to avoid passing health, social, and economic costs on to the younger generation” by assessing “the systems and root factors” that contribute to obesity.

    The effects of obesity’s prevalence on lower-income countries is also highlighted in the report. Nine of the 10 countries with the greatest expected increases in obesity globally are low or lower-middle income states in Africa and Asia.

    Reasons include trends in dietary preferences towards more highly processed foods, greater levels of sedentary behaviour, weaker policies to control food supply and marketing, and less well-resourced healthcare services to assist in weight management and health education.

    Lower-income countries are “often the least able to respond to obesity and its consequences”.

    The findings estimate that rises in obesity rates around the world will have a significant impact on the global economy, equating to 3% of global Gross Domestic Product.

    The report emphasises that its acknowledgement of the economic impact of obesity “is in no way a reflection of blame on people living with obesity”.

    The data published in the report will be presented to the UN on Monday.

    Obese is a medical term used to describe a person with a high excess of body fat.

    The report uses body mass index (BMI) to make its assessments. BMI is calculated by dividing an adult’s weight by the square of their height.

  • Families criticise the new US guidelines on childhood obesity

    Families criticise the new US guidelines on childhood obesity

    New recommendations for how pediatricians should handle childhood obesity have drawn some criticism in the US.

    The American Academy of Pediatrics has advised children as young as six to receive intensive therapy, and those in their early teens to receive weight-loss medications or surgery.

    However, some worry that this strategy will compromise living a healthy and active lifestyle.

    In the US, one in five children is obese.

    According to doctors, early intervention is necessary to avert chronic conditions like diabetes.

    I meet Tracy and her 14-year-old daughter, Jaelynn, in a suburb of Washington. They live in a residential complex surrounded by highways and a few patches of green grass.

    Tracy is upset – she’s just received the news that Jaelynn’s school is getting rid of the Physical Education class and replacing it with a health course taught in the classroom.

    She’s worried because her daughter already doesn’t get much chance to move and socialise with her classmates. She thinks the new class will make it even more difficult.

    Jaelynn tells me that last year she enrolled in a summer camp organised by the YMCA. She would go on field trips during the day and spend plenty of time outside.

    “It was really fun,” she says. “I felt better, I felt healthier, and I loved making friends.”

    Jaelynn has suffered from kidney disease since she was a child, and her being overweight negatively impacts her condition. But her mum says during the summer things started to improve.

    “She lost twelve pounds in three months,” Tracy says. “Her nephrologist was really impressed that she could lose so much so quickly. Her health improved and her confidence as well.”

    This change, Tracy tells me, showed her how important it was for her daughter to do activities outside.

    For years, doctors have promoted a healthy lifestyle as the best way to fight childhood obesity. But in recent weeks the debate over this issue has reignited, as the American Academy of Paediatrics issued new guidelines for the first time in 15 years.

    They say that eating well and exercising is not always enough.

    “Medical treatment and prevention need to go hand in hand,” says Dr Nazrat Mirza, one of the authors of the guidelines.

    “Obesity is a chronic medical condition and in addition to healthy lifestyle changes, we have shown that medication works, and surgery also works.”

    Dr Mirza says the guidelines want to shatter the double standards that people with obesity face by making medical treatments readily available, like for any other condition.

    “Just like asthma, just like hypertension,” she says. “In hypertension you would tell somebody to cut salt, but then the blood pressure is still high, so you’re still going to give them medication.”

    But some doctors are concerned by the emphasis on intensive early intervention.

    Dr Katy Miller works with teenagers struggling with eating disorders at Children’s Minnesota, and she fears these guidelines might be “setting kids up for a challenging relationship with their bodies”.

    “We are proposing treatment strategies that are expensive and even in the best circumstances are often unsuccessful,” she says.

    She thinks the focus should be more on the societal factors that impact childhood obesity.

    “How can we ask someone to diet when we’re not addressing things like poverty, food scarcity and housing instability?”

    “I had a 15-year-old patient who had been told by doctors to lose weight,” she adds, “and his family has been living in extreme poverty. They had a change in their financial circumstances, and he said to me ‘do you know what the best part about having money is? You can buy fruit that isn’t mouldy’.”

    On a cold grey day, I meet Julia. She’s a mum of three and she has just finished a year-long support group on healthy cooking organised by the YMCA.

    A woman hold out food for her child
    Image caption,Mother of three Julia Guevara was diagnosed with high cholesterol and prediabetes during pregnancy

    “I am the one who cooks at home,” she tells me proudly, “so if I cook healthy food, my family stays healthy.”

    She was referred to the program because she had been diagnosed with high cholesterol and prediabetes during pregnancy. Her teenage son, she tells me, was starting to have health issues as well, and that motivated her.

    While she cuts some fruit for her toddler, I ask her what she thinks of the new guidelines.

    She shakes her head.

    “As a parent, I’d first try changing the food we eat and getting my children to do sports,” she says.

    “In our country, kids don’t have that many opportunities to exercise, and schools don’t have enough sports programs. Only if I had tried everything, would I consider it.”

    On the opposite side of town, Tracy agrees. “Surgery and medication should be the last resort,” she says.

  • 57% of babies denied exclusive breastfeeding suffer obesity, low intellect

    Deputy Director, Nutrition, Ghana Health Service, has stated that not breastfeeding a child has dire consequences on the growth of the child.

    More than half of all babies denied exclusive breastfeeding for six months suffer obesity and low intellect in later years

    Fifty-seven (57) per cent of babies in the country are at risk of obesity at adolescent stage and also low intelligence scores for not undergoing exclusive breastfeeding, Mrs Veronica Quartey,

    Mrs Quartey said that currently, about forty-three (43) per cent of infants under six months were exclusively breastfed.

    In an interview with the Ghana News Agency to explain the significance of exclusive breastfeeding, she stated that exclusive breastfeeding provided total nutrition, reduced the risk of obesity in adolescents as well as later in life and also increased intelligence.

    On the other hand, Mrs Quartey said that infants under six months who did not undergo exclusive breastfeeding may suffer low intelligence scores, leading to school dropout.

    She stressed that children dropping out of school would eventually cause low productivity in the nation if they did not achieve their full potential for education.

    The Deputy Director informed that non-exclusive breastfeeding infants might grow into adolescents with non-communicable diseases which could lead to high health costs for families and the nation.

    “Non-exclusive breastfeeding may lead to low intelligence scores, may lead to school drop out if children are struggling to learn, and low productivity of a nation if children do not achieve their full potential for education; increase risk of non-communicable diseases which could lead to high health costs for family and nation,” she told GNA.

    She was however emphatic that “a child who is exclusively breastfed is more likely to grow and develop better than a child who is not breastfed or given mixed feeding. Children who are not exclusively breastfed often experience poor growth, especially if what is given is not nutritionally adequate or not prepared hygienically.”

    Mrs Quartey insisted that a baby that is not breastfed but given mixed feeding may experience frequent bouts of diarrhoea and other infections and may not grow well.

    “Exclusive breasted children are lower risk of becoming ill or being hospitalized or even dying during infancy than the child who is not exclusively breastfed. In the long term, exclusively breastfed children have higher IQ, are less likely to develop overweight, obesity or type 2 diabetes later in life”, she announced.

    Addressing the issue of career women who are unable to exclusively breastfeed as a result of institutional pressures, she recommended to employers and institutions in the country help the staff by enforcing the current provisions for maternity leave and supporting it with annual leave.

    “Extend maternity leave with salary adjustments if agreeable with staff,” she further recommended to both institutions and career women.

    She again called for paternity leave for the fathers to also have some ample time to support their wives at home, as this would ease the pressure on the breastfeeding mothers to carry out the six-month exclusive breastfeeding.

    She appealed to institutions to discuss flexible work times with their staff including coming to work late and closing late or vice versa.

    She added that there should be a creation of friendly breastfeeding spaces like breast milk expression rooms, and crèches in institutions to accommodate nursing mothers.

    Touching on the resolution to cover 57 per cent of the non-exclusive breastfeeding infants in the country, she suggested that all women, especially nursing mothers be supported throughout the breastfeeding journey, starting from pregnancy with education on the importance of breastfeeding till they finally deliver.

    She added that health workers should immediately after delivery support mothers to put the baby to the breast and initiate breastfeeding within the first hour after birth.

    “Before mothers are discharged from the hospital, they should be linked to community health workers for continuous support for the mother. Fathers, mothers-in-law and community members should all be educated on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding and the need to support mothers to do it exclusively for six months,” she recommended.

    She further charged the authorities to ensure that the law that regulated the marketing of breast milk substitutes was enforced.

    Source: GNA

  • South Africa risks increase in obesity

    New research has predicted that childhood obesity will soar over the next decade, overwhelming health services around the world.

    The study by the World Obesity Federation says the number of children classified as obese will rise to around 250 million by 2030, up from 150 million today.

    Read:South African mom found guilty of murdering her 4 children

    The organisation says the aggressive marketing of junk food is to blame, combined with lax government action.

    The research suggests China and South Africa are likely to see the biggest increases.

    Read:South Africa unlikely to meet its growth forecast of 1.5% finance minister

    Source: bbc.com