News

The world is getting fat

11 November 2010

Global policy group the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says obesity levels are rising fast. In a report in the Lancet medical journal, it says low-income countries cannot cope with the health consequences of wide scale obesity.

Rates in Brazil and South Africa already outstrip the OECD average.

Increasing prosperity in some developing countries has led to a rise in “Western” lifestyles. The consequences of rising obesity rates are considerable. Excess weight increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, osteoarthritis, several forms of cancer (including esophageal, colorectal, breast, endometrial, and kidney cancer), and many other illnesses.

An estimated 2.6 million people die each year as a result of being overweight or obese. Some epidemiologists believe that excess weight will soon rival tobacco as the world’s leading cause of preventable premature deaths””the obesity pandemic’s health effects may wipe out the gains in life expectancy achieved through decreasing smoking rates.

The obesity pandemic also has significant economic consequences. The World Health Organization estimates that in many developed countries, obesity now accounts for 2 percent to 7 percent of all health care spending. Yet medical costs are only a small fraction of the pandemic’s total costs. Among its other adverse economic effects are heightened absenteeism rates, reduced worker productivity, and increased food and clothing costs.

Many developed countries are already paying billions of dollars annually to manage the medical costs associated with obesity. Those costs are likely to escalate in the future.

More than 1,000 studies, published in the past ten years, identify the interventions that are most effective in helping people lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. The studies cover a wide range of approaches, including medical management, commercial weight-loss programs, and community-based health-promotion efforts. Research reveals that single-intervention programs, such as low-calorie diets and exercise regimens, generally produce only modest weight loss. Better results are obtained when several interventions are used together. In addition to diet and exercise, the interventions can include nutrition classes, one-on-one counseling, drug therapy, bariatric surgery, and financial incentives.

Locally led social movements can halt or reverse the obesity pandemic – movements often begin with small groups that are willing to take action to encourage healthy eating and exercise. However, many small groups are intimidated by the pandemic’s scope and complexity, as well as by the number of interventions needed to achieve impact. Several of the interventions require the organizers to push against entrenched interests in a range of interlocking areas: individuals want to relax and watch television rather than exercise; companies want to profit from their high fat, salt, or sugar products; television stations want to profit from the ads for those products, and so on.

Governments can intervene with media campaigns promoting healthier lifestyles, taxes and subsidies to improve diets, tighter government regulation of food labelling and restrictions on food advertising. They are in a singular position to offer incentives to, and align the efforts of, all the organizations that have a stake in this issue.

Only governments have the authority to issue the policies and regulations needed to combat some of the forces contributing to the pandemic.

This article was compiled using a news report from BBC News and an extensive analysis from McKinsey. Share your views in our Comments section below. More news headlines can be found in our News Archive.