Obesity Series Exposes Unacceptably Slow Progress in Tackling Obesity

23 Feb 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 edited by World Obesity’s Policy and Prevention co-chair Professor Boyd Swinburn, and published in the Lancet.

The series explores the rise in obesity around the world, particularly in the Western world, and looks at some of the countries that have experienced a plateau in obesity, while pointing out that none have yet experienced a decline in obesity rates. In many developing economies, rates are still climbing rapidly.

“If we are to achieve the modest target of ‘no further increase’ we will have to do more than we are,” said Professor Swinburn. “This means holding governments and food corporations to account for their policies.”

Co-author Dr Tim Lobstein has highlighted the double nutritional burden in many developing countries of over-nutrition on the one hand, and under-nutrition on the other. “Under-nutrition and over-nutrition have many common drivers and solutions, so we need to see an integrated nutrition policy that tackles both these issues together to promote healthy growth for children,” said Lobstein.

The report uses the food industry as an example of where food policy is failing, highlighting the $20bn that is spent on food for children every year. It says that few countries have taken regulatory steps to protect children from the negative health effects of obesity or implemented widely-recommended healthy food policies.

Dr Christina Roberto, also a contributor, said: “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.

“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,” she added.

The Series authors call for food policies that change the nature of 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 health 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.

Public health policies also need to change, say the Series authors. “The key to meeting WHO’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,” Swinburn concluded.