Obesity Is Complicated, So Is Preventing It. The 28th August #obsmuk chat's blog by Gemma Bridge.
Obesity Is Complicated, So Is Preventing It The number of people living with overweight and obesity has increased over the past 30 years , and so have associated conditions such as diabetes and dental carries . As a result, prevention is extremely important. But prevention is complex since obesity is the result of a multitude of interrelated forces which act at multiple levels and influence patterns of eating and physical activity . There are at least four preventive strategies for obesity: Education, regulation, modification of the food supply (availability, reformulation of products) and price changes . Traditionally obesity prevention has focused on individual-level behavioural changes through education, campaigns and commercial weight loss programs . However, such approaches overlook the complicated interaction between societal, environmental and genetic factors inherent to obesity and thus have poor long-term success . Alternative, ‘whole-system’ approaches to pre