By Filipe Rufino - 29th May 2007
The European commission has tabled plans to fight obesity across the EU.
EU health commissioner Markos Kyprianou has unveiled on Wednesday a new voluntary strategy aimed at curbing the growing problem of obesity in the EU.
Obesity affects over half of the adult population across most EU member states, accounting for seven per cent of total healthcare costs in Europe, the white paper reads.
The strategy specifically targets children and the food industry.
Brussels estimates there are over 21 million obese children across the EU, and the number is rising by 400,000 a year.
“If we don’t act, today’s overweight children will be tomorrow’s heart attack victims”, Kyprianou warned.
Stimulating people – and children – to exercise is another part of the plan, with commission figures claiming that one in three Europeans does not exercise at all.
In the case of children, the challenge will be to promote sports as a preferred source of entertainment over television and videogames, Kyprianou said.
“Children today do not entertain themselves with physical activity”, he said, adding that a father had recently told him his son prefers to play basketball on a computer rather than in the school’s playground.
But for Spyros Spyrou, director of the Cyprus-based center for the study of childhood and adolescence, it is the parents’ responsibility to teach children how to include sports and a healthy diet in their lives.
"It is not easy for city kids to join sports, it has to be organised or it is simply unsafe, and some parents cannot afford to pay for organised activities", he told TheParliament.com.
A common mistake is when parents start ordering food, such as Chinese takeaway, pizzas and kebabs for dinner, he said.
Ordering food "is a very common and tempting option for a tired parent arriving from work”, Spyrou said, but the downside is that children get used to it quickly and tend to demand more takeaway food, starting a vicious cycle that can lead to obesity, he said.
The food industry is another key target of the commission's strategy, with Brussels calling for cutbacks in the amounts of salt, fat and sugar used in processed foods.
Food producers should also avoid promoting ‘supersized’ portions and ensure nutrition and health claims of products are backed by hard science, the strategy reads.
Asked if self-regulation was the best approach, the health commissioner said he was confident it was in the industry’s interest to follow the voluntary rules.
“You cannot ban food products (in the EU) because they are unhealthy, only if they are dangerous”, he said.
Sabine Henssler, communications director of CIAA, the European food industry lobby that represents a combined annual revenue of €836bn, told this website her organisation welcomes the white paper.
It “rightly recognises the multidimensional aspects of obesity”, she said, adding that food producers have a key role to play in the fight against obesity in Europe yet as part of a broader approach.
The European consumers' organisation BEUC said the white paper is too little too late, however.
“It seems that Kyprianou and the Barroso Commission have already decided to leave much of the work to their successors – who will no doubt themselves wish to review the situation before deciding what to do”, BEUC director Jim Murray said.
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