Europe is suffering from an "epidemic" of overweight.

In a new report published Tuesday, May 3, the World Health Organization (WHO), is concerned about the rapid progression of obesity on the Old Continent, responsible for more than 1.2 million deaths per year.

“Rates of overweight and obesity have reached epidemic proportions across the region and continue to rise,” lamented in a press release the European branch of the organization which brings together 53 states.

In Europe, almost a quarter of adults are now obese, making the prevalence of obesity higher than in any other region except the Americas, according to the WHO.

No country in the region can currently claim to stop the progression and scale of the problem which was revealed with force during the Covid-19 pandemic where overweight was a risk factor.

Obesity linked to 13 types of cancer

"Increased body mass index is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases, including cancer and cardiovascular disease," WHO Europe director Hans Kluge said in the report.

Overweight and obesity would thus be the cause of more than 1.2 million deaths per year, representing more than 13% of deaths in the region, according to the study.

Obesity is the cause of at least 13 different types of cancer and likely to be directly responsible for at least 200,000 new cases of cancer per year, according to the WHO.

"This figure is expected to increase further in the coming years," the organization warned.

The latest comprehensive data available, dating back to 2016, shows that 59% of adults and nearly one in three children (29% of boys and 27% of girls) are overweight in the Old Continent.

In 1975, barely 40% of European adults were overweight.

The prevalence of obesity in adults has soared 138% since then, with an increase of 21% between 2006 and 2016.

A policy of taxes and subsidies

According to the WHO, the Covid-19 pandemic has made it possible to measure the impact of the overweight epidemic in the region.

The restrictions (closing of schools, confinement) have at the same time “led to an increase in exposure to certain risk factors which influence the probability that a person will suffer from obesity or overweight”, underlined Hans Kluge.

The pandemic is causing harmful changes in eating and sports habits, the lasting effects of which must be reversed, argued the WHO.

"Policy interventions that target the environmental and market determinants of unhealthy diets... are likely to be most effective in reversing the epidemic," she said.

There is also a need to tax sugary drinks, subsidize healthy foods, limit the marketing of unhealthy foods to children, and support efforts to encourage lifelong physical activity, she said.

With AFP

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