09 Sep 2011 Global change needed to stem obesity pandemic
Almost no week goes by without a new headline about obesity. A new series of research papers published in medical journal The Lancet argues that the global obesity epidemic needs a fresh approach – including government intervention.
This four-part series critically examines what we know about the global obesity pandemic: its drivers, its economic and health burden, the physiology behind weight control and maintenance, and what science tells us about the kind of actions that are needed to change our obesogenic environment and reverse the current tsunami of risk factors for chronic diseases in future generations.
The first paper looks at the global drivers of the epidemic; the second paper analyses obesity trends in the USA and UK, and their impact on prevalence of diseases and healthcare spending. The third paper introduces a new web-based bodyweight simulation model, that incorporates metabolic adaptations that occur with decreasing bodyweight; and the final paper assesses the interventions needed to halt and reverse the epidemic. Its authors conclude that the changes needed are likely to require many sustained interventions at several levels, but that national governments should take the lead.
The series has many messages about the complex issue of obesity and how it is best tackled. One important premise is that the increasing weight of people worldwide is the result of a normal response by normal people to an abnormal environment.
There are five messages that need to form the basis of a concerted response. One, the obesity epidemic will not be reversed without government leadership. Two, business as usual would be costly in terms of population health, health care expenses, and loss of productivity. Three, assumptions about speed and sustainability of weight loss are wrong. Four, we need to accurately monitor and evaluate both basic population weight data and intervention outcomes. Five, a systems approach is needed with multiple sectors involved.
The Lancet series on obesity can be accessed here. Free registration is required.
Comment by Tim Worstall, contributor on Forbes
The Lancet is the UK’s (and they would claim the world’s) premier health journal. The problem is that it seems to have been taken over by the Puritans. Those who are worried all the time that someone, somewhere, might be enjoying themselves.
Today’s issue has a series of papers on obesity. One particularly joyless quote from one of the papers:
“To me, the underlying drivers that are promoting overconsumption of food, and its resulting obesity, have the same roots as those that drive our overconsumption of fossil fuels and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.”
There seems to be no recognition at all of the fact that obesity has two major points to it. The first is that it’s a sign that mankind has, finally and in doing so become the first species to manage it, abolished the general shortage of food. Life has been trying to do this since the first protozoa appeared in the primordeal oceans: heck since the first self-replicating chemical compound turned up. We’ve won, we’ve managed to solve one of the great questions of life its very self. Not where do we have lunch, not even are we about to become lunch, but for the first time the answer to the question “is there any lunch?” is “yes, what would you like?”. This should be greeted with resounding hurrahs I would have thought.
The second thing is that if obesity is as dangerous to human health as these scientists claim then it’s a self-solving problem. The obese will die, their genes that tend to obesity will die out and the human race will be thin, just as they wish it to be. It’s a fairly brutal observation but still a true one…..