2010-11-12 10:12:36
Developing countries should act now to head off their own "obesity epidemic",
says a global policy group.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says obesity
levels are rising fast.
In a report in the Lancet medical journal, it says low-income countries cannot
cope with the health consequences of wide scale obesity.
Rates in Brazil and South Africa already outstrip the OECD average.
Increasing obesity in industrialised countries such as the UK and US has
brought with it rises in heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
However, increasing prosperity in some developing countries has led to a rise
in "Western" lifestyles.
Now the OECD warns that they are catching up fast in terms of obesity rates.
Across all the countries represented in the OECD, 50% of adults are overweight
or obese.
Childhood obesity
Rates in the Russian Federation are only just below this, and while fewer than
20% of Indians are classed this way, and fewer than 30% of Chinese people, the
body says things are worsening fast.
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The report recommends that these countries act now to slow the increase, with
media campaigns promoting healthier lifestyles, taxes and subsidies to improve
diets, tighter government regulation of food labelling and restrictions on food
advertising.
Its authors calculate that doing this would add one million years of "life in
good health" to India's population, and four million to China over the next 20
years.
The cost would be considerable but the OECD insists that the strategy would pay
for itself in terms of reduced health care costs, becoming cost-effective at
worst within 15 years.
Michele Cecchini, one of the report's authors, said: "A multiple intervention
strategy would achieve substantially larger health gains than individual
programmes, with better cost-effectiveness."
She suggested that specific action be taken to target childhood obesity.