Those who are proud of getting off the bus a stop early in the belief that it will keep their weight down are in for a rude shock.
An international group of scientists is about to suggest that this will not offset the growing epidemic of obesity. Many adults need 60 to 90 minutes' physical activity a day to fight the flab to
ILLUSTRATED: YUSHA
Since two-thirds of men and three-quarters of women in Britain do not meet the minimum NHS guidance of 30 minutes' moderate exercise at least five days a week, UK health officials are wondering what prospect there is for meeting the target to be recommended by the international obesity taskforce (IOTF).
The obesity statistics in England alone are grim -- one of five adults obese, two-thirds of men and half of women overweight, 31,000 deaths a year, and an annual bill of at least US$725 million to the National Health Service (NHS) and US$3 billion to the economy from the consequences. Nearly six in 10 adults, some 20 million people, needed a change in lifestyles, said the national audit office last year. Yet health and fitness clubs are booming, with 6 million members in Britain, while millions more try diets and weight reduction programs. Some are getting the message, but is willpower ever going to be enough?
Doctors have recently seen the first cases of overweight white children in Britain getting a type of diabetes normally confined to the over-40s or children from ethnic groups more prone to the disease. Sending nursery-age children to keep-fit classes and teenagers to IOTF estimates that 1 billion people worldwide are either pre-obese (700 million) or obese (300 million) using current definitions. These are based on body mass index, a calculation of a person's weight in kilograms divided by their height in metres squared. In an adult, a BMI of 25 to 30 is overweight and more than 30 obese. This might be a good tool for measuring Caucasians, but there is debate about whether it is suitable for many ethnic groups in China or south Asia where people's conditions do not meet the "obese" criteria measured by BMI but still give concern through their genetic propensity to put on fatty tissue around vital organs.
The World Health Organization hopes to get agreed policy standards on diet and nutrition, essential when so many food companies are multi-national, although if the warring with the tobacco companies is any precedent, it could be years before targeted international action bites. Perhaps it is time for the state to behave more like a nanny. An all-party parliamentary group of MPs and peers which aims to push obesity up the political agenda launches next Tuesday.
Amid continuing worry over the inactivity of children (pick your scapegoat -- teachers, sellers of school playing fields, TV programers, videogame manufacturers or parents), concern is also mounting over the content of children's diet, and the role of fizzy drink companies and food manufacturers in promoting high-fat, high-salt and high-sugar foods. Advocates of disease prevention in Britain will be watching to see how much of the 43 per cent rise in NHS spending promised by chancellor Gordon Brown is targeted their way.
Some argue that the government, paralyzed by fears of being attacked for mummy-knows-best attitudes by the food industry, has left companies to set the agenda on what is healthy eating. Heinz last week proudly boasted that baked beans or spaghetti in tomato sauce counted towards the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day which the government is trying to encourage us to eat.
Technically it does, although a furious Department of Health says it will not endorse products and that consumers should be aware of high fat, sugar and salt in many processed foods. Heinz did not attend the food industry's own voluntary joint health claims initiative to seek approval on the basis that the five-a-day message was not new and the government advice always said dried, processed and frozen fruit and vegetables counted.
Jane Wardle, the co-founder of the UK charity Weight Concern, says government departments and businesses should now be making "weight impact assessments" on their decisions just as they make judgments over the environmental or economic impacts. "People don't have much idea about whether weighing yourself regularly is a sign of obsession or prudent monitoring," she says. "Parents are very unsure about whether they should be attempting to influence their child's food intake in the right direction, or if by bringing up the topic while they have food arguments they will help give their child an eating disorder."
The government says it is acting. By 2004 every child aged between four and six will have a free piece of fresh fruit every school day and schoolchildren are being promised a minimum two hours' exercise a week. The NHS offers anti-obesity drugs and programs under which GPs can "prescribe" exercise, while an initiative is under way to reduce salt intake by a third. It accepts that more needs to be done about improving those messages and is about to try to brand its five-a-day message more clearly. Processed food, for instance, will probably count for one portion a day.
The battle against the obesity epidemic promises to be an exhausting one.
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