Posted on 09/03/2006 5:56:04 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
Obesity has reached pandemic proportions throughout the world and is now the greatest single contributor to chronic disease, an international conference was told here.
"This insidious, creeping pandemic of obesity is now engulfing the entire world," Australia's Monash University professor Paul Zimmet, chair of the 10th International Congress on Obesity, said on the opening day of the conference.
The spread of the problem was "led by affluent western nations, whose physical activity and dietary habits are regrettably being adopted by developing nations," Zimmet told more than 2,000 delegates.
The world now has more fat people than hungry ones, according to World Health Organisation figures, with more than a billion overweight people compared to 800 million who are undernourished.
The congress on obesity is held every four years, with the last three staged in Toronto (1994), Paris (1998) and Sao Paulo (2002).
"The conference will treat obesity as the keystone of all health priorities because it is the single greatest contributor to chronic disease throughout the world," said University of Sydney professor Ian Caterson, the event co-chair.
"There are now more overweight people in the world than undernourished and we are seeing the double burden of the extremes of malnutrition -- undernutrition and overnutrition -- in many developing countries.
"We know this is not about gluttony -- it is the interaction of heredity and environment. We know that small changes can make a big difference in peoples weight and health."
Zimmet said the problem needed urgent solutions -- not just widespread changes to diet and exercise but the rethinking of national policies on urban and social planning, agriculture policy, education, transport and other areas.
He also warned in an opening address that the growth of obesity-related diabetes, or so-called "diabesity", was set to bankrupt health budgets all over the world.
Around 370 speakers and presenters at the six-day congress will discuss a range of issues, including scientific research on how the brain regulates energy and advances in the prevention and clinical management of obesity.
The conference is being attended by academics and health professionals from Australia, Japan, the United States, Britain, Canada, Sweden, Indonesia and New Zealand.
Thanks, but no thanks.
I buy and cook a great deal of the above mentioned products - but I also buy ice cream, cookies, and chips as well.
Both my freezer and pantry are running low right now and I'm going to have to do a major stock up. I will do it in 2-3 increments over the next 6 weeks and spend about $300. I will then spend a weekend cooking and putting together meals to put in the freezer and not have to worry about another major stockup for 6 months.
I'm not the only one who does that?
LOL!!!
I love to cook, but sometimes I don't feel like cooking, so having something in the freezer that can be popped in the over is a definite necessity.
I try to keep the freezer meals for nights when we're running, I'm shot, or sick. It's SOOOOO convenient.
I always stock up for the winter. We have nice days where I can replenish, but you can't count on good weather here; you have to be ready.
There are some here who'd see this as a Great Leap Forward in the March to Utopia.
Proud to support your right to be filthy, disgusting and armed!!!
Same here.........and making jelly.
I made blueberry jam , I impressed even myself.
Was my first attempt fooling with preserves.
Good for you.
I need to get more blueberries - but it is far too wet to go picking them....that is if they even survived Friday' storm and yesterday's rain
I didn't know you could get them this late in the season.
Call ahead and see if they were battered into submission.
It was early October when we went last year.....
I would definitely call ahead. If they got battered, I'll just wait until the end of the month and go get apples.
I got a buschel of June apples and froze them...
Mighty good apple pie.
You should be darn proud to earn your 4.75 an hour.
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