“Most of the world’s population lives in places where overweight and obesity kill more people than underweight. In 2016, more than a third of adults worldwide were classified as overweight or living with obesity, as were 41 million children younger than five years,” noted a new study published in the Lancet.
Complex chronic disease
One of the authors of the study, ‘Time For a New Obesity Narrative’, Professor K. Srinath Reddy said: “Obesity affects people of all ages, geographies and socioeconomic backgrounds. The misleading obesity narrative has inhibited coordinated action, partly because the language and images that describe the problem can distort it.”
Obesity is not only a risk factor for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) but is also a complex chronic disease.
‘Sole responsibility’
“The established narrative on obesity relies on a simplistic causal model with language that generally places the blame on individuals who bear sole responsibility for their obesity. This approach disregards the complex interplay between factors not within an individual’s control [example epigenetic or arising from non-genetic influences, biological and psychosocial] and powerful wider environmental factors and activity by industry [example food availability and price, built environment, manufacturers’ marketing, policies and culture] that underpin obesity,” points out the study.
For example, the food industry has engineered ultraprocessed foods with high levels of salt, sugar and fats to enhance their addictive properties.
Built environment
“Moreover, the roles of built environment and epigenetic in obesity do not get the attention they warrant. The continued temptation to chase easy wins and focus on single policies in silos, such as school programmes or taxation, rather than addressing the wider obesogenic environment and other drivers of obesity will mean countries continue to fail to protect their citizens from the harm caused by obesity,” added Dr. Reddy.