September 5, 2006
People all over the world are getting fat to the point that it is jeopardizing their health, a group of international experts has warned. Convening the International Congress on Obesity, Professor Paul Zimmet, an Australian diabetes researcher, called obesity "an international scourge."
"It's as big a threat as global warming and bird flu," Zimmet told the gathering of 2,500 obesity experts and health officials.
Speakers at the conference warned the cost of treating health problems related to being overweight was rising exponentially on a global scale, amounting to billions of dollars a year in countries such as Australia, Britain and the United States.
Aside from being a health problem, Philip James, chairman of a global task force set up by medical organizations that deal with weight-related problems, said obesity was rapidly becoming an enormous economic burden for developed and undeveloped nations alike. Only now, he said, were governments finally addressing the problem because of the mounting costs.
Professor Kate Steinbeck, an expert in children's health at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, said the toll is being felt most by the current generation of children, who may face a shorter life span because of weight related health problems. She says the current generation of may be the first in history to die before their parents because of health problems related to weight.
The World Health Organization puts the number of obese adults worldwide at 300 million, adding that another 700 million can be classified as overweight. Experts say this extra weight increases the risks of diseases such as diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, stroke and some forms of cancer.
