World Anti-Obesity Day: One in five Europeans suffers from the disease

By: News Team

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World Anti-Obesity Day: One in five Europeans suffers from the disease

More than half of Europeans are overweight. Scientifically, this means a Body Mass Index equal to or greater than 25.

If the BMI is higher than 30, then we talk about obesity. And there, it is almost one in five Europeans who are affected today.

In the graph, in red, the countries with the highest rate of overweight on the continent: Malta, Croatia and Hungary. On the other hand, in yellow, the countries where the rate of overweight is the lowest: Italy, Belgium, France.

Proportion of population overweight. Euronews.

On World Obesity Day, health authorities are sounding the alarm about a phenomenon that continues to worsen.

In 20 years, the number of cases has doubled and the recent health crisis does not help.

“Sedentary lifestyle, physical inactivity, but also junk food have been encouraged. In the end, all this has led to an increase in obesity, especially among children. Because the children were used to school, to spending time in the playground, to playing sports… and all these activities had been completely cancelled,” explains Hélia Hakimi-Prévot, a health journalist.

Several specialists want special attention to be paid to children, ensuring that good feeding practices are established.

“You have to be more careful with everything that is soft drinks, sugary drinks and snacks. There’s a lot of pecking. Children tend to eat a lot of sweets outside of meals. So we should pay attention to rebalancing the diet of the little ones,” says Karina Vychneskaia, a digestive surgeon at the Ambroise-Paré Hospital in France.

Several voices are emerging in favor of taxing the most processed, the most gaseous, the sweetest and the too salty products. A way to force the agri-food industry to be a little more responsible.

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