Abstract
A public-health approach considers the relevance of nutritional research in the prevention and management of obesity. Well-defined and internationally-agreed definitions based on BMI allow an assessment of the worldwide prevalence of overweight and obesity. There are about 250 million obese adults in the world, and many more overweight. Obesity is emerging in the Third World, first in urban middle-aged women. With economic developments, obesity then occurs in men and younger women. In the West childhood obesity is rapidly emerging, with concern that early-onset obesity is especially hazardous. In Asians the risks of excess visceral fat occur at lower body weights than in Caucasians. The propensity to visceral obesity in Asians may relate to malnourished mothers and low birth weight. The International Obesity Task Force is considering many issues, including the health economics of obesity. It has developed a strategy to define childhood obesity, which in children over 6 years is likely to predict long-term weight and health problems. While the search for genetic markers of obesity continues, with particular interest in the leptin gene, it is clear that societal change, with the decline in physical activity and the passive overconsumption of high-fat diets are major contributors to the global increase in obesity. The public-health aspects of obesity research are therefore challenging.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
Nutrition and Dietetics,Medicine (miscellaneous)
Reference77 articles.
1. Regulation of leptin production: a dominant role for the sympathetic nervous system?
2. Beyond low fat diets;Katan;New England Journal of Medicine,1997
3. Relation of central obesity and insulin resistance with high diabetes prevalence and cardiovascular risk in South Asians
4. Epidemiological study of central obesity, insulin resistance and associated disturbances in the urban population of North India;Singh;Acta Cardiologica,1995
5. Diet and lifestyle guidelines and desirable levels of risk factors for prevention of coronary heart disease in Indians;Singh;Journal of Internal Medicine,1996
Cited by
36 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献