World Obesity Day 2023: Take Steps To Prevent Obesity!
In the recent backdrop of studies that point out that by 2035, half of the planet will be obese people, this year’s World Obesity Day has pinnacle importance. As the world is suffering from the obesity pandemic, only by proper campaigns and measures this condition can be dealt with.
As World Obesity Day is near, it calls for certain considerations to reevaluate our attitude towards this grave condition. Go through the news article to understand the core theme of this year’s obesity prevention campaigns and how you can take part in them to share your contributions.
World Obesity Day Calls For Interactive Actions
Like every year, March 4 is celebrated as ‘World Obesity Day’. The campaign was started in the year 2015 and aimed for implementing practical strategies that can help people maintain a healthy weight and eradicate the global obesity crisis.
The campaign had reached over six million people in 2016 and by 2018 it raised ten million. The main theme of this year’s Word Obesity Day celebration is “Changing Perspectives: Let’s Talk About Obesity”.
This year the campaign has set the goal to change the misconceptions around obesity. It prompts one to understand the graveness of the situation and analyze shared strategies to solve it. The campaign calls for healthy debate and interactive sessions that can make a large shift in norms and provide some health outcomes.
According to the data from the website, World Obesity Day, by the year 2035, there will be 1.9 billion people living with obesity. And the estimated economic impact of this can be around $4.32 trillion US dollars. Along with this a gradual increase in childhood obesity is estimated and can be 100% between 2020 and 2035. So all this data shows that 1 in 4 people will be suffering from obesity by the year 2035.
At this critical point, the obesity pandemic can only be eradicated by appropriate measures that can treat and prevent its onset on a global scale. According to experts’ opinion, obesity prevention methods should be based on a wholesome policy that focuses on a global impact and change. Some of these are provided below:
- Supporting local governments in improving nutrition for mothers, infants, children, adolescents, and older people.
- Implementing policies based on recommendations from institutions such as the World Health Organization.
- Applying these policies in different settings such as families, schools, worksites, early childcare, healthcare organizations, etc.
- Limiting the intake of unhealthy foods and beverages on an individual level.
- Encouraging the consumption of healthy foods on a large scale.
- Implementing policies to combine physical education in schools.
- Eradicating the stigma associated with obesity.
- Understanding obesity is a disease and needs proper medical treatment.
- Avoiding blaming individuals for obesity.
- Understanding the economic backdrops that lead to certain conditions such as obesity.
Also read: Reports Predict: More Than Half The World Will Be Obese By 2035
The 2023 obesity prevention campaign is based on discussing the condition on a wide scale. It urges us to talk about obesity and make it part of the public discourse. The policy also urges us to shift the perspectives from me to we and focus on the role of the community.
It also asks to shift the paradigm of conversation to action. Along with this, this year the campaign is spread to all social media handles. It hails to amplify the message through these channels by spreading the hashtags, #WorldObesityDay2023, #WOD2023, #LetsTalkAboutObesity, and #ChangingPerspectives.
