Media statement
A call to governments to unite in the battle to improve diets to prevent
obesity and combat chronic disease was made by international experts gathered
in
They urged health ministers, who meet
in
The International Obesity TaskForce
(IOTF), a global network of experts and linked NGOs committed to seeking action
on obesity, said governments must strengthen their resolve to fight the
epidemic of obesity and not be put off by commercial pressures to avoid the
measures urgently needed to defuse the type 2 diabetes and heart disease time
bomb which is a global threat, particularly for developing countries.
The IOTF convened the special health
policy workshop on Obesity Prevention, prior to Health2004, the World
Conference on Health Promotion and Health Education taking place in
“We need decisive coherent action not
just from governments, but from all the players including the food industry,
whose leaders now say they want to be part of the solution rather than just
remain part of the problem,” said Prof Philip James, chair of the IOTF.
“Ministers, when they meet in a few
weeks time, should have the courage to tackle this head-on and not be diverted
by spurious claims that somehow improving people’s health could create economic
disadvantages for particular industrial groups. It is time to put health before
profit, but in any case it is important to recognise that huge economic gains
and profits will flow from working towards achieving healthier populations throughout
the world,” he added.
The meeting organiser, Prof Boyd Swinburn, Professor of
Population Health, head of the Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition at
“Part of the inertia is due to
the complexity in constructing a comprehensive plan for action for obesity
prevention. This workshop is drawing on the evidence-based approaches to
provide IOTF recommendations to governments, WHO, and NGOs about the evidence
for action to address this urgent global problem.”
Prof Swinburn arranged the workshop
with Dr Timothy Gill, acting co-director of the University of Sydney’s Centre
for Public Health Nutrition, who deals with IOTF’s
network throughout the Asia-Pacific region, and Prof Shiriki Kumanyika,
Professor of Epidemiology and Associate Dean for Health Promotion and Disease
Prevention, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in the USA , who chairs the IOTF’s public
health prevention group.
Prof Kumanyika also chaired a WHO
expert group, whose recent report highlighted that Asian populations may be
‘supersensitive’ to the increased risks of abdominal obesity and chronic
diseases, even when they do not fall into the classic categories for overweight
and obesity.
As vice chair of the WHO expert group,
whose controversial report on Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic
Diseases (WHO TRS 916) encountered systematic opposition from the sugar
industry and some other parts of the confectionery, snack and soft drink
sectors when it was launched last year, Prof Kumanyika said she welcomed WHO’s
revised proposals for a global strategy.
“It is something that all of us
working in this field have been arguing for over many years. The only way to
truly address the challenge of obesity and related co-morbidities, particularly
for small developing countries, is to have global approach which engages everyone
in making the changes needed in our diets and levels of activity.”
The outcome of the IOTF’s Obesity Prevention workshop will be a novel
‘framework’ approach to enable policy makers in individual countries to assess
the best options available for action.
NOTE TO EDITORS - FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: NEVILLE RIGBY, DIRECTOR OF POLICY AND PUBLIC
AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL OBESITY TASKFORCE
TEL (IN
Further background on obesity is available on: www.iotf.org/media
The International Obesity TaskForce is part of the International
Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO) and works with a range of other NGO
stakeholders. www.iaso.org
Details of the World Conference on Health Promotion and Health
Education can be found on http://www.health2004.com.au