Near a quarter of adults are now obese on the old continent, making the prevalence of obesity higher than in any other region, with the exception of the Americas, according to WHO Tuesday.
Le Monde with AFP
No European country can currently claim to stop the progression of overweight and obesity which rages on the old continent and qualified as “epidemic” by the World Health Organization (WHO) in a new report, published Tuesday May 3. The extent of the problem turned out to be forcefully during the COVVI-19 pandemic where overweight was a risk factor.
“The overweight and obesity rates have reached epidemic proportions throughout the region and continue to progress,” deplored in a press release the European organization of the organization which brings together 53 states. In Europe, almost a quarter of adults are now obese, making the prevalence of obesity higher than in any other region, with the exception of the Americas, according to the WHO.
“The increase in the body mass index is a major risk factor for non -transmitted diseases, in particular cancers and cardiovascular disease,” said the director of WHO Europe, Hans Kluge, quoted in the report. Overweight and obesity would thus be at the origin of more than 1.2 million deaths per year, representing more than 13 % of the dead in the region, according to the study.
Obesity is the cause of at least thirteen different types of cancer and likely to be directly responsible for at least 200,000 new cases of cancer per year, according to the WHO. “This figure should increase further in the coming years,” warned the organization.
The latest full data available, which go back to 2016, show that 59 % of adults and almost one in three children (29 % of boys and 27 % of girls) are overweight on the old continent. In 1975, barely 40 % of European adults were overweight. The prevalence of obesity in adults has soared 138 % since that date, with an increase of 21 % between 2006 and 2016.
“Naked changes in eating and sports habits”
According to the WHO, the COVVI-19 pandemic made it possible to take the measure of the impact of the epidemic of overweight in the region. The restrictions (closing of schools, confinement) have at the same time “caused an increase in exposure to certain risk factors which influence the probability that a person suffers from obesity or overweight,” said Mr. Kluge.
The pandemic is the cause of harmful changes in eating and sporting habits whose durable effects must be reversed, pleaded the WHO. “Political interventions that target the environmental and commercial determinants of poor diet (…) are likely to be the most effective in reverse the epidemic,” she said.
According to her, it is also necessary to tax sugary drinks, subsidize foods good for health, limit the marketing of unhealthy foods with children and praises efforts to encourage physical activity throughout life .