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SYDNEY (Reuters) - Evolution and the environment, not just gluttony, has led to a global obesity pandemic, with an estimated 1.5 billion people overweight -- more than the number of undernourished people -- an obesity conference was told on Monday. Health experts at the week-long congress starting on Monday said calls for the past 30 years for people to eat less fatty foods and exercise more had failed to combat global obesity.Obesity had become an "insidious killer and the major contributing cause of preventable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease," said conference co-chair Paul Zimmet. "It is a disease with disastrous health, social and economic consequences," Zimmet told the conference. Steinbeck said fighting obesity was not simply a matter of people eating less and exercising more, but discovering environmental and genetic contributors to obesity."We know this is not about gluttony -- it is the interaction of heredity and environment," said Steinbeck. "Research into obesity should be given top priority to have any hope of combating the global pandemic," said Arne Vernon, president of the association. Vernon said millions of obese people were being discriminated against and stigmatized, and often denied access to medical services. "A growing proportion of morbidly obese people are at the extreme end of the spectrum but are stigmatized and ignored," he said. But too much processed food results in an excess energy intake deficient in micronutrients, producing a state of "malnutrition," which in turn sees the body react to a "famine stress" by storing fat around the upper body, said McGill. "Many over-the-counter remedies such as concentrated herbal preparations, food extracts, minerals and vitamins are promoted as helping to decrease body weight," she said. "However, they do not redress the nutrient imbalance from poor diets that produce obesity." |
| Evolution, not gluttony has led to the current obesity pandemic Michael Perry, Monday September 4, 2006 |