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New understanding in obesity research*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

W. P. T. James  and
A. Ralph
W. P. T. James*
Affiliation:
Rowett Research Institute, Greenburn Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeen AB21 9SB, UK
A. Ralph
Affiliation:
Rowett Research Institute, Greenburn Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeen AB21 9SB, UK
*
†Corresponding author: Professor W. P. T. James, fax +44 (0)1224 716698, email wptj@rri.sari.ac.uk
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Abstract

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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.

Keywords

Public healthObesityOverconsumptionPhysical activity
Type
Joint symposium with British Dietetic Association on ‘Implementing dietary change: theory and practice’ Session 2.Obesity
Information
Proceedings of the Nutrition Society , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , May 1999 , pp. 385 - 393
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 1999

Footnotes

*

This paper arrived too late for publication with the other papers in this symposium, which appear in Volume 58, no. 1.

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