Obesity is becoming the fastest growing pandemic in the world.
A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine indicates that since 1980, the prevalence for obesity has doubled in many parts of the world, and is in continuous growth. In this sense, nearly a third of the world´s population (over 2 billion among children and adults) are affected by weight-related problems, and accounts for approximately 4 million deaths per year. Furthermore, the rate of increase in children is in many countries greater than in adults. At this rate, it is expected for almost half of the world´s population to be overweight or obese by 2030.
The study, which analyzed 195 countries and territories from 1980 through 2015, was released today at the annual EAT Stockholm Food Forum. “Excess body weight is one of the most challenging public health problems of our time, affecting nearly one in every three people,” said Dr. Ashkan Afshin, the paper’s lead author and an Assistant Professor of Global Health at Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.
Weight-related health problems are one of the primary concerns in the world. To this end, the United Nations created an initiative in 2016 called the “Decade of Action on Nutrition,” whose objective is to eradicate hunger, end malnutrition (including overweight/obesity), and reduce the burden of diet-related non-communicable diseases in all age groups.
This is a global, multifocal problem, which must be approached not only by the public institutions, but also by health professionals, educators, food companies, pharmaceuticals, schools, etc; all working together for the same goal. Only through the combined effort is it possible to stop this growing pandemic.
For more details, the article is available at http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1614362.
Jonathan Jones, PhD
New Product Development Manager
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