Global obesity rise puts UN goals on diet-related diseases ‘beyond reach’
The Guardian | Sarah Boseley and Helen Davidson in Darwin | 9 October 2015
UN goals on diet-related disease will fail to be met because of the soaring numbers of people becoming obese or overweight, with almost 1 billion of the world’s adults projected to be obese by 2025, analysis shows.
Experts warn that targets will not be met because of the spread of the westernised diet around the globe as a result of heavy marketing by the food industry.
Concern over the rise in diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other conditions fuelled by obesity led to a UN summit in 2011, where the World Health Organisation (WHO) was commissioned to set targets to bring down the alarming rate of weight gain across the planet. It set a goal for 2025 of no increase in obesity or diabetes beyond the levels of 2010.
Abstract : “We’ve engineered exercise out of our lives,” said Jane Martin, executive manager of the Obesity Policy Coalition (OPC). There’s a real problem with diet, and highly processed foods are very cheap, highly promoted and easily available.”
Martin, whose background is in public health and tobacco policy, said that of particular concern was the fact that more people were moving from the “overweight category to the obese category”.
Diseases associated with obesity and being overweight have financial impacts as well as health ones. An Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle study in 2005 estimated an annual indirect cost of AU$21bn (£12bn) and a direct cost of $35.6bn to the economy.
