The Burrill Report

The majority of people in OECD countries are overweight or obese, reports the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development leaving them increasingly susceptible to chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. The United States continues to have the largest proportion of obese people.

Though the rate of growth has slowed, the world continues to get fatter. New OECD data and analysis reveal that obesity levels have continued to rise in most countries over the past five years, but more slowly than before. Obesity has been virtually stable in England, Italy, Korea, and the United States but has increased by 2 to 3 percent in Australia, Canada, France, Mexico, Spain, and Switzerland.

One in five children is overweight, on average, in OECD countries, but rates are as high as one in three in countries like Greece, Italy, Slovenia and the United States. However, more countries have managed to stabilize or even slightly reduce rates of child obesity than they have of adult obesity.

Obesity is also an inequality issue, especially in women, according to OECD data. The economic crisis has made families spend less on food, but poor households have also switched to junk foods with high calories. In countries with very high levels of obesity, such as Mexico and the United States, people with more education are now as likely to be obese as those with less education.

The report identifies recent policies countries have put into place to tackle the obesity epidemic. Examples include, among others, the Public Health Responsibility Deal launched in the United Kingdom in 2011, in which the government and private sector work together to develop public health policy; the Drink Up campaign to drink water instead of soft drinks that was promoted by the Partnership for a Healthier America, chaired by Michelle Obama, first lady of the United States; and a new Mexican initiative implemented in the beginning of 2014 in which the government has levied an 8 percent tax on food with caloric content greater than 275 calories per 100 grams, and a 1 peso per liter charge on sugar-sweetened beverages.

“The economic crisis may have contributed to a further growth in obesity, but most governments need to do more to stop this rising tide,” says Michele Cecchini, an OECD health expert who presented a review of the new data at the European Congress on Obesity in Sofia, Bulgaria on May 28.



May 31, 2014
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