Unfortunately, obesity greatly underestimates how harmful it is to smoking

Obesity and obesity more dangerous than previously thought
Most people today are aware that obesity and obesity pose a health risk, but the risk has apparently been underestimated. A high body mass index (BMI) is even more dangerous than previously thought, warn experts of the German Alliance Noncommunicable Diseases (DANK).

With increasing body weight also increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, with overweight people compared to people with a normal BMI have about twice as high risk, reports the DANK, citing a recent study, which in the journal "Lancet Public Health "was published. The health risks of obesity are therefore even more far-reaching than previously thought.

Obesity's health risk appears to be even greater than previously thought. (Image: tortoon / fotolia.com)

Drastically increased cardiovascular risk
In the current study, scientists from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London evaluated the data of 120,813 men and women over a period of more than ten years, the DANK reports. They found that even adiposity grade one massively increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke. "In overweight individuals, it was twice as high, five times higher in patients with Grade 1 obesity, and as many as 15 times greater in those with second- and third-degree severe obesity," says DANK.

Different degrees of overweight
People with a BMI between 25 and under 30 kg / m2 are considered overweight and from a value over 30, physicians speak of obesity (obesity). The latter is divided into different degrees of severity: A BMI between 30 and 35 forms a grade one obesity, a BMI between 35 and 40 a severe second degree obesity and a BMI above 40 a particularly severe third degree obesity, explain the experts. The current study shows once again "how important the fight against obesity is worldwide and underlines the demands for effective population-wide prevention". Dietrich Garlichs, spokesman for the German Alliance Noncommunicable Diseases.

More than 700 million people are obese
The new study results also suggest that there is a medical need to examine patients with obesity and vascular disease early on for diabetes and also to focus attention on the prevention of vascular disease in overweight people with diabetes, emphasizes Professor. med. Manfred James Müller, CEO of the Adiposity Competence Network and representative of the German Obesity Society. According to experts, since 1980 the rate of obesity has doubled worldwide in more than 70 countries. In 2015, a total of 107.7 million children and 603.7 million adults worldwide were obese, DANK reported with reference to another study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Four million deaths annually from obesity
Globally, according to the experts, "around four million deaths are due to overweight", with around 70 percent of high BMI deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease. "This dramatic development demonstrates the urgency of positively influencing lifestyles and stopping the growth of these diseases with the help of population-wide, preventive health promotion and regulation," says Prof. Müller. Health care alone was not up to the challenge of obesity.

Comprehensive measures required
As a response to obesity, the German Noncommunicable Diseases Alliance recommends four key measures, following United Nations and World Health Organization (WHHO) recommendations:

• Reducing taxes on healthy foods with low energy density and low sugar, fat or salt content;
• Tax increase for energy-dense foods with high levels of sugar, fat or salt above the recommended levels;
• Ban on the promotion of unhealthy foods and drinks to children (at least insofar as they do not meet the nutritional profile of the WHO);
• Compulsory labeling of all foodstuffs by a (traffic light) system that is easy to understand for all population groups and clearly identifies the content of sugar, fat, salt and energy.

In particular, the last item on the list was recently discussed again in connection with a Forsa study commissioned by the AOK Baden-Württemberg, as it turned out that many parents clearly underestimate the sugar content of food for children significantly. A clear label would certainly be of great help here. (Fp)