Last year, the National Audit Office reported that levels of obesity in the UK have tripled over the last 20 years. This makes the British among the fattest nations in Europe and, if nothing is done to halt the epidemic, it is feared that levels will soon reach those in the US where one person in every four is obese. Every year tens of thousands of people in the western world are dying prematurely from heart disease, stroke and diabetes - all of them closely linked to obesity.
Obesity is a disease. It is the expression of a classic interaction between nature and nurture. What are the factors responsible for its development? Are we becoming more and more a nation of couch potatoes, or are we just eating too much? Do fat children become fat adults? Can anything be done to halt the obesity epidemic?
This collection of essays, based on presentations made at a national symposium on obesity, is aimed at the generalist with an interest in managing obesity and its outcomes, whether general practitioner, community nurse, dietician or hospital clinician. Its purpose is to highlight the causes and consequences of obesity and to bring modern understanding to the treatment of a problem that is still heavily stigmatised. The authors offer a wide-ranging perspective of obesity as a global problem and explore its devastating metabolic, social and political impact.
What is increasingly clear is that the seeds of many of these adult diseases are sown in childhood. The prevention of adult obesity has thus become a major challenge for the paediatrician.