296: The glimmer of hope in an otherwise damning WHO obesity report

<div>The World Health Orgnization's <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/353747">European Regional Obesity Report</a> makes grim reading.<br> <br> </div> <div>It says nearly two-thirds of European adults are obese, a third of children are overweight or obese, and crucially, the numbers are rising.<br> <br> </div> <div>The WHO says <a href="https://foodmatterslive.com/article/european-region-not-ready-to-halt-obesity-levels-2025-who/">no European country is on track to stop obesity rising by 2025</a>.<br> <br> </div> <div>For UK readers, the standout headline is that Britain is on course to have the worst obesity rate in Europe by 2033.<br> <br> </div> <div>But there is one line within the report that offers a glimpse of hope. It says: "Europe can reverse its obesity epidemic."<br> <br> </div> <div>In this episode of the Food Matters Live Podcast, we interview one of the authors of the report, Kremlin Wickramasinghe, Acting Head of the WHO European Office for the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable diseases.<br> <br> </div> <div>For decades obesity has been a major global health issue and as time has ticked on, despite research, government health legislation, campaigns, changes within the food industry, things continue to get worse.<br> <br> </div> <div>It’s <a href="https://foodmatterslive.com/podcast/turning-the-tide-on-obesity/">a topic we’ve covered before on the podcast</a>, but when we have asked where the solutions are coming from, convincing answers have often been in short supply.     <br> <br> </div> <div>In order to understand how we might reverse rising obesity rates, we first need to understand how we ended up here in the first place.<br> <br> </div> <div>This WHO report is the first we've had for 15 years and some of the changes that have happened in that time, appear to be contributing to the obesity crisis.<br> <br> </div> <div>The Coronavirus pandemic is highlighted in the report as having increased our consumption of fast-food, led to more screen time, and a more seden