“In the near future, the effects of climate change on health will significantly worsen [l’obésité, la dénutrition et d’autres risques alimentaires] “, alert researchers from the University of Auckland (New Zealand), George Washington University (United States) and experts from the NGO World Obesity Federation. In a study published in the journal The Lancet this Monday, January 28, they ensure that we must treat these “Three pandemics”, and not in isolation. “Over the past twenty years, obesity, undernutrition and climate change have been considered separately”, they write. They also denounce the “Slowness of political responses”.
On January 16, a first study advocated halving global consumption of red meat and sugar, and doubling that of fruits, vegetables and nuts. This new research, resulting from the work of 43 experts from 14 countries, is once again the link between food and environment.
A syndemic of three pandemics
Scientists say this syndemia – the presence of two or more disease states that interact negatively – poses the greatest threat to human and planetary health, especially in middle- and low-income countries.
The report also details the reasons why obesity, undernutrition and climate change are closely linked. Rising temperatures in some parts of the world are restricting outdoor physical activity, for example. Undernutrition early in life is a predictor of later obesity in many countries, the researchers say.
Public health and budgetary policies
The main common drivers of this global syndemic would be food and agricultural policies, transport, urbanization, fossil fuel industries as well as exposure of global production of meat or ultra-processed products.
Thus, the experts recommend a response that would combine public health policies (recommendations in favor of healthy diets, promotion of physical activity) and budgetary and fiscal policies (financing of sustainable production methods, taxes to reduce meat consumption. red or favor non-motorized transport). They also ask that multinational food companies be supervised, like the tobacco lobby. They propose the creation of a Framework Convention on Food Systems, on the same model as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (CCLA).
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- The 10 threats to global health for 2019
- Obesity: the world is getting bigger!
