|
|
The World Health Organization released a report last week that called obesity an epidemic in Europe that contributes to 200,000 cancer cases and 1.2 million deaths.
Euronews.com, citing the report, said about 59 percent of adults in Europe are obese or overweight, with boys being slightly more likely to be overweight than girls.
The rate of obesity in Europe is worse than any other country other than the Americas, the WHO said.
“Alarmingly, there have been consistent increases in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the WHO European region and no member state is on track to reach the target of halting the rise in obesity by 2025,” the report said. The countries that have been most impacted were Turkey, Malta, Israel, and Britain.
Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO Europe director, wrote that the world saw the “true impact of the obesity epidemic” during the COVID-19 outbreak.
He said those who were obese were far more likely to “experience severe outcomes of the Covid-19 disease spectrum, including intensive care unit admissions and death.”
Easy to Be Overweight
Julianne Williams, the technical officer for non-communicable diseases at WHO, said today’s environment makes it easy to be overweight. She said most people have “easy access to cheap and delicious food and where it’s really easy to be sedentary all day.”
“We know our children are just barraged with advertising, increasingly in the digital world, even when they’re on video games, they’re seeing ads for foods high in fat, sugar, and salt,” she said.
The COVID-19 lockdowns gave rise to meal delivery apps that could have contributed to the obesity epidemic, the WHO said. The health body said these apps likely contributed to sedentary behavior while people were told to stay home.
TREND FORECAST: The Trends Journal is long reported how obesity has been a killer that does not get nearly the attention in the media as the COVID outbreak. (See “THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM,” “OBSESITY GROWS IN STATES WHERE AT LEAST 35 PERCENT ARE CONSIDERED OBESE” and “LOCKDOWNS CREATING CHILD OBESITY CRISIS.”)
And, rather than blame obesity on those who feed themselves with junk foods that fatten them up and make them more deadly, it has instead become the New ABnormal way of life in the 21st century.
However, there is a very sizable OnTrendpreneur® opportunity for those who develop whole health healing, integrative weight-loss programs.
TRENDPOST: it is worth pointing out that Klug blamed COVID-19 lockdowns and school closures for contributing a great deal to the obesity epidemic among young children.
The Trends Journal, in a 23 February 2021 report, pointed to a pediatrician in Brooklyn who said she’s seeing “a lot of elementary school-aged kids who are gaining 20 to 30 pounds in a year.”
Last year, Dr. Sandra Hassink, director of the Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight, voiced considerable concern about food insecurity due to extended lockdowns forcing kids to eat cheap junk food with little to no nutritional value. “I sometimes think of this as the footprint COVID-19 will leave on our population—increased obesity, food insecurity, and chronic disease.”
The WHO report confirms Hassink’s warning and our trend forecast.
“Preliminary evidence suggests that many of the restrictions related to containment of the pandemic, including school closures and periods of restricted population movements, have led to an increase in exposure to some of the risk factors that influence a person’s likelihood to experience obesity or overweight,” Kluge said.