Stakeholders agree on need for multi-sector approach to obesity
In Short:
Obesity "must be tackled across policies with a special focus on children and young people".
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Lifestyle & Health
Background:
The Commission published a Green Paper on tackling obesity on 8 December 2005. The publication of the paper launched a public consultation on the issue (see EurActiv 8 December 2005).
Issues:
The Commission presented the results of the public consultation on promoting healthy diets and physical activity on 11 September 2006.
"Many of the more than 260 responses we got, emphasise the need for a multi-sectoral approach to tackling the obesity problem, tackling obesity across policies and the need for the action to be focused on children and the young," said a Commission spokesman.
A wide range of stakeholders, governments, the public health community, the food industry, universities and the general public also call for better consumer information on nutrition, and for this to be clear, consistent and evidence-based.
In addition to healthy nutrition at schools, the stakeholders also call for boosting healthy lifestyles at work by increasingly replacing foods that are high in fat and sugar or in large portion sizes by healthy foods in canteens and in vending machines and by daily physical activity around the work site.
Other proposals include promoting physical activity with financial incentives, sport-friendly pricing policies and improvement of quality and accessibility of sport facilities.
Positions:
Contributions of different stakeholders to the Commission Green Paper "Promoting healthy diets and physical activity: a European dimension for the prevention of overweight, obesity and chronic diseases" consultation can be found here.
The Finnish EU Presidency promotes the principle of 'Health in All Policies'. A high-level expert conference on the issue will take place on 20–21 September 2006 and dedicate a plenary on nutrition and physical activity.
Latest & next steps:
The Commission will present a Communication on healthy diets and physical activity during the first half of 2007.
Diet, Exercise, Obesity
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