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THE WORLD HEALTH Organization (WHO) today said that “epidemic” overweight and obesity rates are linked to over 1.2 million deaths annually across Europe, calling for swift policy changes to reverse the dangerous trend.
Obesity rates in the region have ballooned by 138% in the past five decades, the WHO said in a new report, and are linked to a series of cancers and cardiovascular diseases.
Nearly a quarter of adults are now obese in Europe, higher than in any other region except the Americas, the WHO said.
The Covid-19 pandemic is linked to growing waistlines, especially as lockdowns promoted “an unhealthy diet or sedentary lifestyle”, the report found.
“Overweight and obesity rates have reached epidemic proportions across the region and are still escalating,” the health body’s European office said.
“Raised body mass index is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases, including cancers and cardiovascular diseases,” WHO regional director Hans Kluge was quoted as saying in the report.
Obesity causes at least 13 different types of cancer and is likely responsible for at least 200,000 new cases of cancer per year, it said.
“This figure set to rise further in the coming years,” the organisation said in the new report.
Excess weight and obesity are estimated to cause more than 1.2 million deaths per year, accounting for more than 13 percent of deaths in the region, it added.
Pandemic pounds
The latest comprehensive data available, from 2016, shows that 59% of adults and nearly one in three children — 29% of boys and 27% of girls — are overweight in Europe.
In 1975, 40% of European adults were overweight.
The prevalence of obesity among adults has risen by 138% since then, with a 21% increase between 2006 and 2016.
The report also revealed further health risks associated with excess weight.
“People living with obesity were more likely to experience severe outcomes of the Covid-19 disease spectrum, including intensive care unit admissions and death,” Kluge said.
The authors also noted that the causes of obesity “are much more complex than the mere combination of unhealthy diet and physical inactivity”.
Environmental factors unique to “modern Europe’s highly digitalised societies are also drivers of obesity”, it said, including the marketing of unhealthy foods and online gaming — especially among children.
The WHO called for policy changes to prevent obesity and promote healthy lifestyles, such as taxing sugary drinks and subsidising healthy foods while limiting the marketing of unhealthy foods to children.
“Policy interventions that target environmental and commercial determinants of poor diet at the entire population level are likely to be most effective at reversing the obesity epidemic,” it stated.
The WHO’s European region comprises 53 countries, including several in central Asia.
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To think there’s a family out there who’s probably been looking for that poor girl for the last twenty years , it’s very sad .
And what about the disappeared don’t they count?
How do you lose a skull?
The poor girl,how could she ever rest in peace,no family as yet,buried in a place she probably never knew,from her shoulders down in a coffin and her skull probably in a box in a basement somewhere..such a sad story..your right Jane how do you lose a skull..
My parents were involved in the recovery of the body of a man in the early 2000′s (?) in the Shannon Estuary. That man has never been identified. He was given a state burial in Ennis. Another member of the rescue crew entered a competition on Clare FM a short time after to win a headstone. The competition called for people to write their own epitaph. He wrote one for the unidentified man and won. “All you people of Co. Clare, kneel down here and say a prayer, for the man from God knows where”. Very sad to think that there is no name on that headstone.
That made me go cold. What a lovely thing to do for someone and a lovely epitaph.Unclaimed bodies always make me feel so terribly sad, lost souls,some never missed and others never found.
With technology and communication being so advanced it is hard to believe this persons family or friends can not be located ..very sad story ..
Great and sensitive article.
another massive Fail for the Irish State – We are good at failure.
Hardly a fail.sure she cud have come from anywhere
Thats the sad thing about stories like this, maybe no family to miss her! Like the lady who’s body was found in the sea in clontarff I dont think she was even identified never mind been missed! We all take it so much for granted that everyone has family! Cherish yours everyday♡♡
A pretty epic fail really by forensic standards. No dental xrays,no chance of facial reconstrustion. Plus its just bad form to loose a part of someone,how’d you even do that its not exactly a set if keys!
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