The growing obesity epidemic has become a top public health challenge not only in the U.S. but worldwide. Over 300 million adults worldwide are now considered obese or overweight. Since 1980, adult obesity in the 25-nation European Union (E.U.) has tripled and continues to escalate. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), obesity in children has also tripled since 1980. Worldwide, there are over 3 million obese or overweight children and the number is exponentially increasing yearly.
To address the problem of obesity, the first U.S.-E.U. conference on obesity was held in Brussels on May 11-12, 2006. U.S. and E.U. government officials including E.U. Health Commissioner Marcos Kyprianou and U.S. Deputy Health Secretary Alex Azar attended the event, as well as E.U. and U.S. food industry consumer representatives and members of the E.U. Platform for Action. The conference presented initiatives regarding health, nutrition and physical activity, as well as food advertising, food labeling, consumer education and obesity research.
Although obesity is a threat to people globally, the E.U. and U.S. will not be imposing new regulations on the food industry to fight obesity. Instead, the U.S. and E.U. have launched an "obesity platform," which requires the food industry to self-regulate and for health experts and consumer groups to find ways to combat obesity. They also call for a voluntary ban on advertisements aimed at children by soft drink and beverage companies in both the U.S. and Europe
The U.S. and E.U. emphasized the importance of consumer education on healthy foods and diets to help consumers make informed choices to fight obesity. They agree that the food industry will produce healthy food if there's a consumer demand for it.
"It is consumers who will decide what to buy, what to eat and how much," says E.U. Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou. "The target is to enable consumers to make informed choices, based on information which is accurate, truthful and not misleading."
REFERENCES:
1. EU & US: consumer education is the key to fight obesity, EurActiv.com, May 15, 2006:
http://www.euractiv.com/en/health/eu-us-consumer-education-key-fight-obesity/article-155314
Posted by Elaine Gavalas on October 27, 2006 01:51 PM
