There's often a tendency to see obesity in narrow terms just as something to be cured by dieting. The real picture is that obese people are more likely to suffer from a range of chronic conditions including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, musculoskeletal problems and some forms of cancer - all of which will make it harder to take exercise. It can also lead to depression: there are social and emotional consequences in being overweight in a society that venerates thinness.
A signficant minority of the population are on an almost permanent diet (two in five adult women, one in six men) - but only around 12% of people sustain a permanent reduction in their weight.
At The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health, we believe that this is the time for sustained, long-term support and funding for projects which are proven to bring about lasting behavioural change, and for public awareness drives that continue to raise understanding of how to avoid and reverse obesity.
We live in an obesogenic environment - which means that everything about the way we live and our surroundings makes it easy to become overweight and that, for many people, conscious effort is needed to stay at a healthy weight. Our society promotes inactivity and over-eating, and makes high-fat highly processed food easily available, affordable and attractive.
People need to be encouraged and inspired to make healthy choices – to be more active and to cook and eat more healthily. Government policies on food advertising and food labelling need to be proactive and not held back by the fear of being accused of 'nanny statism'.
We need to be helping our children to understand what constitutes a healthy lifestyle and teaching them how to cook healthily - as well as encouraging more of this in the home, we believe it should be a core part of the school curriculum. We welcome the government’s commitment in 2007 to increasing the number of hours of sport offered in schools, although we think it's important that competitive sport is balanced with other types of physical activity so that less fit or able children can enjoy opportunities to be active.
The design of our built environment is also crucial in creating an environment where it's easier to be healthy. We want central and local government planning policies to prioritise the development of ‘walkable communities’ designed around people rather than cars - places where shops, public services like GP surgeries and libraries, green spaces and places of worship are all within a reasonable walk. We need to avoid the type of planning which places low-density housing, supermarkets and office development on separate sites, forcing people to drive. 'Walkability' should be a key test of the acceptability of proposed developments.
We need to balance the needs of people and traffic so that we can help people live more active lives. Over 4,000 children and 8,000 adults are killed or seriously injured every year by cars or lorries while walking or cycling. The higher the traffic volume, the less time people spend outside. We need planning which routinely includes and promotes pedestrianised areas, traffic calming measures and wider pavements. Our public environment needs to be clean, well-managed and well-lit, with many more street trees and thoughtful corporate planting, as well as an emphasis on providing safe, high-quality green spaces, so that it becomes pleasant to walk, run, cycle and spend time in parks.
We'll be highlighting on this site innovative, evidence-based work tackling obesity, and we will continue to support the creation of environments that enable, encourage and inspire people to make healthy choices.
