Obesity’s costs; Is there a solution?

The McKinsey Global Institute reported the worldwide cost of obesity to be 2 trillion dollars annually, or 2.8 percent of global GDP.  Costs from it are approximately the same as from smoking or armed conflicts making it one of the three top global burdens.  Obesity is responsible for about 5 percent of all deaths every year worldwide.  

2.1 billion people - about 30% of the world's population - were overweight or obese creating a "steep economic toll", and the proportion could rise to almost half of the world's population by 2030.  The financial costs of obesity therefore due to illnesses it is causing.

Although the debate on this issue has become polarized and sometimes deeply antagonistic, obesity is a complex, systemic issue. The McKinsey Global Institute report proposes that,

•   Existing evidence indicates that no single intervention is likely to have a significant impact, thus capturing the full potential requires engagement from as many sectors as possible.

•   Education and personal responsibility are critical elements of any program aiming to reduce obesity. They include reducing default portion sizes, changing marketing practices, and restructuring urban and education environments to facilitate physical activities.

The advice usually given to obese individuals who want to loose weight focuses on consuming fewer calories and exercising more. The benefits of Mediterranean diet and of such foods as vegetables, fruits, nuts, fiber and fish, are often also touted.  However, mounting evidence reveals that the most common eating pattern in modern societies of three meals daily, plus snacks, is abnormal from the perspective of human evolution, a group of researchers wrote in an article published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggesting that intermittent fasting could have benefits.

Ancient hunter-gatherers often ate only intermittently, and only when they had a successful hunting. This suggests that the ability to function at a high level both physically and mentally during extended periods without food may have been crucial in human evolution, and that the human body may have adapted to perform at its best with intermittent fasting.  Such intermittent fasting could consist of eating 500 calories or less either two days each week, or every other day, or not eating breakfast and lunch several days each week, the researchers said.