Slow progress in tackling global obesity
Media Release - University of Auckland - 18 February 2015
Embargoed to 12.30pm Thursday 19 February 2015
Global progress towards tackling obesity has been “unacceptably slow”, with only one in four countries implementing a
policy on healthy eating by 2010, according to a new six-part series on obesity, just published in The Lancet.
In less than a generation, rates of child obesity have risen dramatically worldwide. For example, in the USA children
weigh on average five kilograms more than they did 30 years ago, and one in three children is now overweight or obese.
Although child obesity rates have started to level off in some cities and countries, no country to date has experienced
declining rates of obesity across its population.
“The key to meeting the World Health Organisation’s target to achieve no further increase in obesity rates by 2025 will
be strengthening accountability systems to support government leadership, constraining the role of the food industry in
the formation of public policy, and encouraging civil society to create a demand for healthy food environments says
Obesity Series lead author, Professor Boyd Swinburn from the Auckland of University.
The Series consists of six papers and was published to coincide with the Healthy Eating Research meeting in Baltimore
(USA) where Professor Swinburn launched the Series.
New estimates produced for the Series suggest that cutting calorie consumption by just 200 kcal per day (equivalent to
one 500ml bottle of cola) could reduce the bodyweight of children and adolescents in the general population to late
1970s levels.
In low- and middle-income countries, although stunting still affects over a fifth of children under five years of age,
obesity has become the most common form of undernutrition.
This double burden that can affect the same population and the same individual, (characterised by undernourished infants
who do not develop their full height but also have increased body mass index (BMI), highlights the importance of
ensuring a supply of healthy food that is not jeopardised by the aggressive marketing of cheap, less nutritious products
by multinational food companies, says Professor Swinburn.
“Undernutrition and overnutrition have many common drivers and solutions, so we now need to see an integrated nutrition
policy that tackles both these issues together”, says Dr Tim Lobstein from the World Obesity Federation and co-author of
the Series.
The food industry has a special interest in targeting children. Repeated exposure to highly processed foods and
sweetened drinks during infancy builds taste preferences, brand loyalty, and high profits.
This year the global market for processed infant foods is expected to be worth a staggering $19 billion, up from $13.7
billion in 2007. Yet, few countries have taken regulatory steps to protect children from the negative health effects of
obesity or implemented widely-recommended healthy food policies. Most have relied solely on voluntary moves by the food
industry, with no evidence of their effectiveness.
“Our understanding of obesity must be completely reframed if we are to halt and reverse the global obesity epidemic. On
one hand, we need to acknowledge that individuals bear some responsibility for their health, and on the other hand
recognise that today’s food environments exploit people’s biological (eg innate preference for sweetened foods),
psychological (eg marketing techniques), and social and economic (eg convenience and cost) vulnerabilities, making it
easier for them to eat unhealthy foods”, says Dr Christina Roberto, from Harvard School of Public Health in the USA.
“It’s time to realise that this vicious cycle of supply and demand for unhealthy foods can be broken with ‘smart food
policies’ by governments alongside joint efforts from industry and civil society to create healthier food systems.”
The Series authors call for food policies that change the nature of the food and consumer environment including the
availability, price, and nutrition standards of food products, and the marketing practices that influence food choices
and preferences.
Examples include: tighter supervision and international regulation of the food supply; an international code of food
marketing to protect children’s health; regulating food nutritional quality in schools along with programmes to
encourage healthy food preferences; taxes on unhealthy products such as sweetened drinks and subsidies on healthier
foods for low-income families such as vouchers for fruit and vegetable boxes; and mandatory food labelling as an
incentive for industry to produce more nutritional products.
The responsibility for reducing the prevalence of obesity goes far beyond governments, say the Series authors.
They make a number of hard-hitting recommendations for public health professionals and society, including the proposal
that civil action is key to combating obesity. The authors point out that it was pressure from the public that saw
smoking banned in public places in the UK, and access to health care granted to all people living with HIV/AIDs in South
Africa.
Finally, say the authors, health professionals are poorly prepared to treat obesity. More must be done to improve
health-care training, particularly to address biases about patients with obesity, and to improve care-delivery
strategies, specifically for children with obesity for whom there are currently few treatment options.
ENDS