Governments must wake up to the scourge of
obesity or it will soon be too late to win
the battle against the global epidemic, a
senior World Health
Organization official warned.
Professor Robert Beaglehole's
warning concluded a week-long summit at which
2,000 delegates exchanged research on a health
problem the WHO says now affects more than
one billion people globally --- nearly one
in six people.
Beaglehole, the WHO's director of chronic
disease, said public health bodies must learn
from the fight against tobacco to "harangue"
and educate health ministers who doubted the
urgency of acting on obesity.
"The critical lesson from tobacco is
waiting too long -- 50 years -- from the first
evidence," he said.
"There would not be one minister of
health who doesn't now appreciate the importance
of tobacco control."
Obesity is out of control and there is sufficient
evidence to convince governments to take urgent
action, he said.
Unless individual nations move now to rein
in expanding waistlines "we will have
missed the boat," he added.
"The evidence is secure enough for
the appropriate public health action,"
he said, dismissing those who doubt data on
the extent of the problem.
At the 10th International Congress on Obesity
in Sydney, a gloomy snapshot emerged of a
global menace that disproportionately affects
women and the poor, threatens a generation
of children, and risks bankrupting nations
that fail to act early enough.
While drug companies touted pharmaceutical
solutions and lobby groups their branded diets,
most scientists and academics agreed that
further-reaching action was needed quickly.
Options included eliminating government
agricultural subsidies that kept sugary, fatty
foods cheaper than fruit and vegetables, educating
the public and politicians about the causes
of obesity and a total ban on advertising
of junk food to children.
Beaglehole also stressed engaging with the
food and sugary drinks industries, which many
saw as the main culprits behind the epidemic.
"They're part of problem so they have
to be part of solution," he said.
Beaglehole also took aim at opponents of
industry regulation targeted at protecting
children from obesity, who accused experts
of promoting a "nanny state."
"We need to promote the idea that a
government which is interested in the health
and well-being of its children is doing what
a government should do -- an enlightened government."
