World Obesity Day 2016

You may not have heard of World Obesity Day as it was only introduced by the World Obesity Federation in 2015. The World Obesity Federation represents professional members of the scientific, medical and research communities from over 50 regional and national obesity associations. Their mission is to lead and drive global efforts to reduce, prevent and treat obesity.

World Obesity Day was launched to stimulate and support practical solutions to help people achieve and maintain a healthy weight, to work towards fighting the obesity crisis that we are facing around the world. This year World Obesity Day is on Tuesday 11th of October and Upper GI Surgery are proud supporters of this important day to raise awareness of this ever increasing problem we face in Australia (as well as worldwide).

The objectives of the World Obesity Day campaign are:

• Increase knowledge and understanding of obesity and what should be done to overcome it.
• Encourage governments to take urgent action to meet their commitment to halt the steady rise in obesity by 2025.
• Share experiences of campaigning to enable the spread of best practices.
• Encourage member associations and supporters to get involved with campaigning on obesity-related issues.

This year World Obesity Day is focussing on childhood obesity, one of the most challenging public health problems we face today. At present over 222 million school children worldwide are overweight or obese, estimated to rise to as high as 267 million by 2025. Obesity in children has an immediate impact on a child’s health, as well as being a risk factor for many preventable conditions later in life such as diabetes, heart disease and even cancer.

At Upper GI Surgery we are advocates for achieving and maintaining a healthy weight and we strongly support the awareness that World Obesity Day is aiming to bring to the ever increasing obesity problem. If you would like to know more information about World Obesity Day you can visit the website www.obesityday.worldobesity.org.