May 11th is World Obesity Day. Recently, the World Obesity Federation, which has its headquarters in London, UK, released the 2025 Global Obesity Map. The map reveals that the number of overweight and obese people around the world is constantly rising. In 2010, there were 1.6 billion overweight and obese adults. By 2015, this number increased to 2 billion. If the current trend continues, by 2030, nearly 3 billion adults worldwide will be overweight or obese. This accounts for about half of the global population aged 18 and above. The World Obesity Federation is calling on all countries to take active steps. They should quickly implement a series of key policies to deal with obesity. This is to jointly reduce the impact of overweight and obesity on people’s health and the economies and societies of all countries.
The World Obesity Federation focuses on global obesity prevention and control. Its goal is to increase the international community’s awareness of obesity issues. It wants to take countermeasures through education and policy guidance. In its report, the organization has made statistics and predictions on the prevalence and trends of non-communicable diseases like overweight and obesity from 2000 to 2030. Joanna Rolton, the CEO of the World Obesity Federation, said that the 2024 data shows that the Americas, Southeast Asia, and the Western Pacific region have the highest number of people disabled and killed due to overweight and obesity. Obese patients often need medical help throughout their lives. This puts pressure on the medical systems of various countries.
Simon Barkla, the president of the World Obesity Federation, stated that obesity itself is a “serious disease”. It is also a risk factor for non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and stroke. “The number of people who die from obesity each year is higher than those who die from traffic accidents,” he said. The report shows that around 4 million people globally die each year because of health problems caused by obesity. It is estimated that by 2030, 93% of countries will lack sufficient medical resources when dealing with this issue.
The organization also evaluated the implementation of five key policies to address obesity in the report. It pointed out that two-thirds of the countries around the world have not implemented these five key policies or have only implemented one of them. These policies include taxing sugary beverages, taxing foods high in sugar, fat, and salt, providing subsidies for healthy foods, restricting the promotion of unhealthy foods to children, and promoting physical activities through taxes and incentives. The World Obesity Federation is calling on the international community to make joint efforts. They should take comprehensive and transformative measures to create a healthier life for everyone. Joanna Rolton said that taking measures to change people’s unhealthy eating habits and encouraging them to do more physical exercise can not only lower the obesity rate but also help reduce the prevalence of non-communicable diseases.
According to Simon Barkla, the fourth High-level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases will be held in September this year. During the meeting, representatives from various countries will review the progress in dealing with obesity. They will also formulate the next stage of global response measures for non-communicable diseases. Currently, we are at a critical point in promoting actions to address the obesity issue. Prioritizing actions is a key opportunity to reduce the global impact of non-communicable diseases.
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