Monday November 6 2000 - not for release before 5pm GMT

IOTF supports "walk more - eat less" alert
 
 

The International Obesity TaskForce is backing the International Diabetes Federation’s call today for greater global action to prevent diabetes.

Prof Philip James, chairman of the IOTF, said that the world must wake up to the need to halt the rising epidemic of obesity - the underlying cause of most cases of type 2 diabetes - and start working urgently to prevent the explosion in overweight and obesity among children and adolescents.

People needed to be persuaded to "opt in to a healthier life" to avert the weight-related risks of type 2 diabetes, but obesity rates had more than doubled in some countries and were now a threat in the developing as well as the developed world.

"The forecast increase in type 2 diabetes is in line with our own projections for a huge increase in obesity in the next decades and a major escalation in weight-related ill health, not only in diabetes but in heart disease, cancer and other illness.

"The level of childhood obesity worldwide and the disturbing emergence of growing numbers of children and teenagers being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, which was once a disease of later life, provide clear signals of a 21^st century public health crisis which must be tackled vigorously and urgently by everyone - governments, health organizations, communities and individuals.

"Obesity and type 2 diabetes can be prevented or controlled if we can find more successful ways to persuade people to opt-in to a healthier life by cutting down high fat foods, eating more leafy green vegetables and fruit and taking the opportunity to be more active rather spend too long at work and at home sitting in front of a television or computer screen.

"The forecasts for Asia are particularly alarming so there is a great urgency now to focus on the prevention message at a time when lifestyles are changing rapidly," Prof James added.

The IOTF is working to support action programmes to halt the rise in obesity in China, other parts of Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and elsewhere in Europe and North America. It recently co-sponsored with the World Health Organization a joint report Redefining obesity - the Asia-Pacific perspective, which warned of rising levels of obesity and lower thresholds for risks of weight-related disease among Asian populations.

Further information contact: Neville Rigby, Director of Public Affairs, IOTF c/o IDF Congress press centre.

For IOTF general information visit Stand 230 opposite the Communications Centre in the IDF Level 1 (lower) exhibition hall or visit the IOTF website www.iotf.org