Obesity worse for health than drinking or smoking

Monday, December 18, 2006 by: Jerome Douglas
Tags: obesity, health risks, health news

https://www.naturalnews.com/021318_obesity_health_risks.html

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In England, there are now 24 million adults who are overweight or obese. Among the country's children, 16 percent are obese as of 2006, compared with 11 percent 11 years ago in 1995. Even more startling is that NICE expects one-fifth of all children to be obese within four years.

Professor Peter Littlejohns, director of clinical and public health at NICE, said "Obesity is the most serious threat to the future health of our nation … the risks of obesity are as serious as smoking and urgent action is needed to tackle it. For the first time, we have bought together all the people who can help solve the obesity problem, not just health professionals but local councils, employers and schools to produce a piece of work that sets out the steps we must take."

In America, public health research has shown that for every 100 obese men and women, there are 50 extra chronic diseases compared to about 20 extra diseases among those who had ever smoked, nearly 60 among people living in poverty, and a similar number for drinkers.

"Obesity has become one of the leading causes of preventable death in advanced nations," said Mike Adams, coauthor of Appetite Suppressants for Safe, Effective Weight Loss. "It is time that nations enacted serious measures to ban junk food advertising, educate the public about sound nutritional habits, and end the FDA's censorship of food and supplement companies who with to share valuable information about the health benefits of their products."

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