EMBARGO Wednesday October 25 2006 1200 hours

OBESITY FORECAST TO DOUBLE EXPERTS WARN AS BUSINESS, ECONOMICS AND HEALTH LEADERS MEET IN MONTREAL TO PLAN NEW CHILDHOOD OBESITY PREVENTION STRATEGY

Alarming new forecasts of soaring obesity rates among children and adults were revealed by experts as a top level obesity summit convened in Montreal today (Wed).

Nearly 287 million children could be overweight or obese by 2010 - 85% more than a decade earlier. But the overall obese population could rise to more than 700 million by 2015, with nearly 2.3 billion overweight globally – without taking account a lower overweight threshold set for Asians.

The worst affected countries would be the USA and Canada, where half of all adults are likely to be obese with only one in five people of healthy weight.

The latest estimates were disclosed by the International Obesity TaskForce (IOTF)* as top economists, business executives, management and international health experts gathered for the McGill Integrative Health Challenge Think Tank in Montreal to consider what major changes in society are needed to halt the rise in childhood obesity.

The think tank has been convened by McGill University’s Faculties of Management and of Medicine, in collaboration with the Global Prevention Alliance, a group of five international NGOs, working to combat childhood obesity and obesity-related chronic diseases.

The event will open with a live webcast at 6pm Montreal time via

http://mediasite.campus.mcgill.ca/mediasite2/viewer/?cid=ab3935f8-3460-41d8-8954-385c51e52aff

Prof Philip James, who chairs IOTF and the Presidential Council of the Alliance, warned that a ‘cataclysmic slide’ was occuring with overweight and obesity rates already moving close to a tipping point which would make recovery  very difficult.

“The rapid deterioration in diet and weight-related health is already becoming very obvious. One in three people born in the USA today is expected to develop type 2 diabetes, and the rest of the world is heading in the same direction,” he said.

“This tragic and wholly preventable global pandemic of obesity has developed such a momentum that it can only be confronted successfully by tackling childhood obesity head on, as one of the most urgent strategic priorities for the whole of society.

“We must all be ready to take radical steps to protect our children, and to address the dietary health of adults, so that we can start to create a better environment for children to grow up in,” added Prof James.

He praised the McGill initiative for bringing together business leaders and economists to help develop a “societal plan” to combat childhood obesity. An IOTF report, Global strategies to prevent childhood obesity: Forging a societal plan that works, presented to the Montreal think tank argues that the obesity epidemic is in part a consequence of historic food policies which have led to distorted food supplies and prices. It proposes that subsidies should be removed from oil, fats and sugars, and fruit and vegetables production should be favoured to encourage consumption. The report also outlines a series of the key measures needed to address the obesity epidemic, including:

• Price – incentive pricing to encourage consumers to switch to healthier diets
• Availability –wider distribution of healthier produce and restricted availability of ‘junk food’
• Marketing – better international controls to protect children from targeting on TV and internet

Other proposals include addressing urban development, planning and design to ensure the built environment favours pedestrian use and cyclist safety.

“We need to follow the American business maxim and ‘think outside the box’. The idea that we can just educate people and suddenly things will change just isn’t realistic. There is little hope of succeeding given the sheer scale of the problem we are now facing both in the developed and in most developing countries. We must move rapidly to devise and implement coherent societal solutions”, warned Prof James, who is president-elect of IASO.

He said he was inviting practical and financial support from organisations and benefactors to help the Global Prevention Alliance develop and expand its programmes to develop strategic approaches to combating childhood obesity throughout the world.

* The International Obesity TaskForce is the policy research and advocacy arm of the International Association for the Study of Obesity and the lead organisation in the Global Prevention Alliance, which includes the World Heart Federation, the International Diabetes Federation, the International Union of Nutritional Sciences and the International Pediatric Association.

ends

For further information contact:

Neville Rigby Director of Policy and Public Affairs
International Association for the Study of Obesity/International Obesity TaskForce
231 North Gower Street, London NW1 2NR

Mobile: +44 (0) 7939250347  email:  neville.rigby@iotf.org

www.iotf.org / www.iaso.org / www.preventionalliance.net

For the McGill Health Challenge:

Christine Zeindler +1 514-969-0210   email: christine.zeindler@gmail.com

Background note:

The opening session on Wednesday October 25th 2006 at 6pm (Montreal time) can be viewed on:

http://mediasite.campus.mcgill.ca/mediasite2/viewer/?peid=3a03ffa4-c595-4a16-a8f2-9ec4f15a1452

The main meeting will be a closed session discussion at the request of some of the participants.

The closing session on Friday October 27th 2006 at 6pm (Montreal time) can be viewed on:
http://mediasite.campus.mcgill.ca/mediasite2/viewer/?peid=20048a06-cc7f-4990-a388-ed1a9cf97320

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The figures for children age 5-18 are calculated based on conservative projections from International Obesity TaskForce estimates.

The population estimates for those age 15+ are drawn from the latest available WHO Global Infobase data, made available courtesy of the WHO Non-Communicable Disease Surveillance Section in conjunction with the IOTF.

Global estimates of prevalence of obesity, overweight and mean BMI: 2005-2015

The McGill University media release available below and online http://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/news/?ItemID=22297

The undisputed pandemic of childhood obesity worldwide threatens to be the major public health problem of the new century. We have created a modern society in which the first generation of children of the new millennium could be the first since the rise of the industrial revolution to have a shorter lifespan than its predecessors.

Dr. Laurette Dubé, internationally respected professor in consumer and lifestyle psychology and marketing, food and health specialist, and founding chair and scientific director of the McGill University Integrative Health Challenge Think Tank, is a passionate proponent of the view that we need to mobilize individuals, organizations and society on a grand scale to unleash enough action to affect the tipping point of a healthy lifestyle epidemic.

To that end, the McGill Integrative Health Challenge Think Tank: Forging a Societal Action Plan in Preventing Childhood Obesity Around the World will be held in Montreal, October 26-27 (opening session 6 p.m., October 25) at the Mount Royal Centre, 2200 Mansfield, across from the historic McGill University campus. The think tank is an invitation-only event. Only the opening and closing sessions will be open to the general media.

The think tank will convene leading academics, professionals and decision- and policy-makers from the domains of health, education, agriculture and food, leisure and sports, urban planning, media, finance, management, law, politics and economy to develop a bolder approach to the prevention of childhood obesity around the world. Participants will forge the draft version of a societal plan for childhood obesity prevention currently in the making by the Global Prevention Alliance, a partnership among five international medical associations that works in close collaboration with the World Health Organization. The opening keynote speaker will be economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, with a word of welcome by the Quebec Minister of Health, Philippe Couillard.

Participants will address key challenges to be faced if societal action plans currently being pushed by the health community around the world are to galvanize action instead of opposition. They will also examine key premises in society that need to be revisited to reach any critical mass in efforts to curb obesity, including freewill/personal responsibility for individuals, persisting in the prescribe/comply model for health organizations, being in the "business of doing business" for corporations, and operating along the "health/economic divide" for governments.

The conference will conclude with the launch of the Montreal Call to Challenge "Business as Usual" on childhood obesity in the presence of the Mayor of Montreal, Gérald Tremblay, and the unveiling of a worldwide e-think tank to solicit ideas, encourage public feedback and broaden the fight.

This event is organized by McGill University in partnership with the Global Prevention Alliance, the American Heart Association, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and other health, philanthropic, agriculture and economic organizations. More detailed information on the think tank content, partners and participants is available at http://www.mcgill.ca/healthchallenge/.

Conference Co-chairs:

Laurette Dubé, Professor, James McGill Chair in Consumer and Lifestyle Psychology and Marketing, Desautels Faculty of Management; Founding Chair and Scientific Director, McGill Health Challenges Think Tank, Canada

Philip James, Chair, Global Prevention Alliance; Founder and Chair, International Obesity Task Force (IOTF), UK

Program Highlights:

Opening keynote address:

• Paul R. Krugman, Professor, Economics and Public Affairs, Economics Department, Princeton University; Columnist, The New York Times, USA

Keynote commentaries offered by:

• Catherine Le Gales-Camus, Assistant-Director General, Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health, WHO, Switzerland
• Alan Bernstein, President, Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Canada
• Robert Eckel, President, American Heart Association, USA

Confirmed participants:

From Health:

• Michel Marmot, Chair, WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health, UK
• Jean-Marie Le Guen, Physician and Deputy, Paris, President of the Study Group, National Assembly, France
• William Dietz, Director, Nutrition and Physical Activity Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA
• Kaare Norum, Professor Emeritus and Rector Emeritus, Institute for Nutrition Research, School of Medicine, Oslo University; Former Chair, WHO Reference Group on "Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health," Norway
• Boyd Swinburn, Professor and Chair, Public Health and Nutrition; Founder, WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention and Related Research and Training, Deakin University, Australia
• Robert Beaglehole, Director, Department of Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion, WHO, Switzerland
• Chunming Chen, Professor and Senior Advisor, Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention; Founding President, Chinese Academy for Preventive Medicine, China
• Carlos A. Monteiro, Professor, School of Public Health and Centre for Epidemiological Research in Health and Nutrition, University of São Paulo, Brazil
• Benjamin Caballero, Director, Center for Human Nutrition; Professor, Johns Hopkins Center for Human Nutrition, USA
• Thomas N. Robinson, Departments of Pediatrics and Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, USA
• Adam Drewnowski, Professor, Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Community Medicine; Director, Center for Public Health Nutrition, University of Washington, USA

From Economics, Business, Agriculture and Other Disciplines:

• Daniel Kahneman, 2002 Nobel Laureate, Economic Sciences, USA
• Kevin Murphy, Economic Sciences, University of Chicago
• T. S. Srinivasan, Economic Sciences, Yale University
• Lance Friedman, Senior Vice President, Kraft Foods Inc., USA
• Wilbert J. Keon, Canadian Senator; President & CEO, University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Canada
• William Bernstein, Author of The Birth of Plenty and The Four Pillars of Investments, USA
• George Loewenstein, Professor, Economics and Psychology, Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
• Brian Wansink, Cornell University; Director, Cornell Food and Brand Lab, USA
• David Fidler, International Law, Indiana University
• Louise Fresco, Former Assistant Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations; University Professor, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Gary W. Evans, Human Ecology, Departments of Design and Environmental Analysis and of Human Development, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, USA
• Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Professor, Food Nutrition and Public Policy, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University; Former Director-General, International Food Policy Research Institute, USA
• Nick Drager, Senior Advisor, Department of Ethics, Trade, Human Rights and Health Law, WHO, Switzerland
• John Holland, Author of Emergence: From Chaos to Order, USA
• David Bornstein, Author of How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas and The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank, USA
• Claude Fischler, Sociologist, Director of Research, National Centre of Scientific Research, France

Contacts

Kathryn Haralambous
Communications Officer
University Relations Office, McGill University
Tel  +1 514-398-3095