The obesity endemic continues to rise at an international level and experts believe that the global fight against obesity is too sloppy.
More than 2.1 billion people across the world are believed to be overweight and the figures are still rising. Experts suggest that controlling obesity will need stricter government policies and serious engagement from the health practitioners, civic society and the food industry.
The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that 39 percent of the adult population in the world were overweight and 13 percent were obese in 2014. WHO also notes that about 42 million kids under five years were obese or overweight in 2013.
The Lancet Obesity 2015 series suggest that the world should think differently to combat obesity. Data from The Lancet Obesity series reveal that American children consume 200kcal per day more on an average in comparison to children in 1970's. This figure equals to food worth $400 per child per year, or about $20 billion per year for food industry in the U.S.
World Obesity Federation's Tim Lobstein, who is a co-researcher on the obesity series, complains that the food industry especially targets children.
"Fat children are an investment in future sales," says Lobstein.
Lobstein also suggests that government involvement in tacking obesity has been "unacceptably low" and only one in four countries of the world implemented healthy eating policies by 2010.
Professor Boyd Swinburn, co-chair of the World Obesity's Policy and Prevention, who also edited The Lancet Obesity series, highlights that one in three American children are now overweight or obese. Even though child obesity has started to level off in many countries no country has reported a declining rate of child obesity.
"If we are to achieve even the modest target of 'no further increase' we will have to do more than we are," says [pdf] Professor Swinburn. "This means holding governments and food corporations to account for their policies."
The researchers have called for stricter regulations to combat worldwide obesity, which includes an international code for marketing food that protects the health of children worldwide. The researchers also suggest that taxes should be implemented on foods that are categorized unhealthy.
The researchers also call for subsidies on healthy food so that poor families have greater access to healthy food items. The studies also call for compulsory food labeling, which will encourage the food industry to produce healthier food.
