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DISCUSSION No. 129 • FSN Forum digest No. 1246
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Are there any successful policies and programmes to fight overweight and obesity?
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deadline extended until 7 July 2016
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Dear Members,
We extended the discussion
Are there any successful policies and programmes to fight overweight and obesity?
for a few more days, since over the last few hours a lot of contributions have been coming in. Please find an update below.
We are looking forward to keep receiving your comments regarding experiences with policies and programmes aiming to fight
obesity and overweight. Late submissions are also welcome and can be sent to
[log in to unmask]. The outcomes of this discussion will help enrich the study on obesity reduction which is carried out by FAO and the Catholic University of Chile (PUC), in consultation with the
World Health Organisation (WHO).
All comments received so far and further background information on the topic are available on the
discussion webpage. Your participation is welcome in
English, French,
Spanish, Arabic,
Chinese and
Russian.
Your FSN Forum team
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CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED
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Janine
Coutinho, Ministry of Social Development, Brazil
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Janine elaborates on the Brazilian Inter-sectoral Strategy for Prevention and Control of Obesity, which involves 20 different
ministries and various civil society organizations. This initiative aims to strengthen public systems and to support family farming in order to stimulate sustainable consumption and production. One of the biggest challenges has been scaling up the initiative.
Read the contribution
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Matt
Kovac, FIA, Singapore
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Matt introduces the Asia Roundtable on Food Innovation for Improved Nutrition (ARoFIIN). ARoFIIN collaborates with the
Health Promotion Board of Singapore on conducting a benchmark study on the prevalence of obesity in Asia and regional interventions that have shown to be effective. The study will act as the first reference document in ARoFINN’s next steps regarding designing
and scaling up intervention projects in Asia.
Read the contribution
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Pauline
Harper, EPODE International Network, Belgium
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Pauline shares information on the EPODE International Network (EIN), which supports community-based programs aiming to
prevent overweight and obesity. Communities in France, the Netherlands and Belgium that have implemented the EPODE-methodology have seen a decrease of 10-20% in the prevalence of obesity.
Read the contribution
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Valentin
Son’kin, Institute of Developmental Physiology, Russian Academy of Education, Russian Federation
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Valentin points out that the human body contains three types of fat, of which the ‘brown’ and ‘beige’ types can be conducive
in the fight against obesity. Yet, these typologies are not part of the human body composition in general, and are only present in 70% of the cases. Currently, researchers try to understand how these types of fat could be used in tackling the metabolic syndrome.
Read the contribution
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Sebastián
Peña, Municipality of Santiago, Chile
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Sebastián tell us about the ‘9 Step Agenda’, which aims to improve nutrition and promote physical activity in schools.
Elements that have been crucial for the success of the ‘9 Step Agenda’ included political will and inter-sectoral coordination. A key challenge concerned ensuring that the financial support, mostly given by the food industry, was free of conflict of interest.
Read the contribution
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Dominique
Masferrer, Facultad de Medicina – Universidad de Chile, Chile
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Dominique mentions a number of laws and programs that have been implemented in Chile. He argues that past interventions
that focused on individual responsibility have been ineffective, and that a structural approach is crucial for effective policies.
Read the contribution
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Juan
Ariel Guerrero, Complutense University, Peru
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Juan points to various vitamins and minerals that are crucial for health. He also stresses that currently, people eat
very fast, which leads to a lack of satiety because of increasing insulin resistance.
Read the contribution
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Lideke
Middelbeek, Jongeren op Gezond Gewicht (Young People at a Healthy Weight), Netherlands
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Lideke presents the Dutch Jongeren Op Gezond Gewicht (JOGG/Young People at a Healthy Weight) project, which is based
on the French EPODE approach. This project has been implemented in 108 municipalities and has shown positive results. It targets people between 0-19 years, involving parents and the direct environment (e.g. shopkeepers, companies, schools and local authorities).
The approach consists of 5 pillars: political and governmental support, public-private partnerships, social marketing, scientific coaching and evaluation, and linking prevention and healthcare.
Read the contribution
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Tim
Lobstein, World Obesity Federation, United Kingdom
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Tim shares links to a map-based interactive database of policies related to obesity and to a database of policies aiming
to promote healthy diets. In addition, he mentions examples of how commercial interests have undermined health-promoting policies, and argues that there is a need to find ways to hold companies to account for the negative health impacts of their products.
Read the contribution
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Carla
Habib-Mourad, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
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In Lebanon, Nestlé, the American University of Beirut, and the Ministry of Education have joined forces to implement
the Nestlé Healthy Kids (Ajyal Salima) programme that has become part of the curriculum in public schools. The intervention targets children aged 9 to 11, and results include a reduction in children’s probability of consuming chips and sweetened beverages,
and an increase in fruits and vegetables consumption. The program has been replicated in Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Read the contribution
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Ximena
Ramos Salas, Canadian Obesity Network, Canada
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Ximena stresses that although in Canada, the “Curbing Childhood Obesity: A Federal, Provincial, and Territorial Framework
for Action to Promote Healthy Weight” was signed, there have been no comprehensive implementation efforts. She also argues that the framework has adopted a simplistic view of obesity, which would mainly be caused by unhealthy eating and lack of physical activity.
Consequently, policy recommendations focus on individual-level approaches rather than broader societal-level policy solutions.
Read the contribution
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Cécile
Duprez-Naudy, Nestlé, Switzerland
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Cécile shares her thoughts related to the third discussion question. She argues that for strategies to be successful,
private-partnerships need to be included. Addressing obesity requires a holistic, integrated, long-term, multi-stakeholder approach, in which stakeholders should agree on realistic targets and should commit to measurable objectives. Furthermore, the industries’
research and development capacity should be leveraged, and an incentive-based approach would accelerate industry participation.
Read the contribution
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Bernadete
Weber, Hospital do Coraçao / Hospital for the heart, Brazil
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In Brazil, the BALANCE Programme targets people over 45 years of age suffering from cardiovascular diseases. Only 40%
of the Brazilian patients with chronic diseases adhere to dietary recommendations; this intervention was developed as an accessible nutritional education tool with a view to improving patient understanding of dietary prescriptions and in this way, enhancing
compliance.
Read the contribution
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Danuta
Gajewska, The Polish Society of Dietetics, Poland
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Danuta tells us about initiatives in Poland, where almost 450.000 secondary and upper secondary school students participated
in the “Wise Nutrition and Healthy Generation” project. Currently, the project “I Choose Water” is being implemented, which is the first public-private partnership focusing on making water ‘the first choice’.
Read the contribution
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Maureen
Enright, Council of Better Business Bureaus, CFBAI, United States of America
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Maureen shares information on the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), a self-regulation program
created to drive positive changes in the children’s advertising landscape in the USA. Adopting strong nutrition standards, CFBAI participants have developed new, healthier foods and made hundreds of recipe improvements in foods advertised to children.
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Bill
Bellew, The University of Sydney, Australia
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Bill shares a case study from Australia, which explores the potential health and broader societal benefits of comprehensive
sector-wide strategies to prevent and control obesity.
Read the contribution
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Andrew
MacMillan, Formerly FAO, Italy
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Andrew elaborates on MEND (Mind, Exercise, Nutrition …. Do it!), a programme targeting children who are overweight or
obese and which is in particular implemented in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Children as well as their parents participate in after-school courses developed by nutrition experts; sessions are conducted by non-specialists who have undergone
specific trainings, which allows for rapid scaling up of the programme. Most MEND courses are in low-income communities and are free.
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Marcela
Leal, Universidad Maimonides, Argentina
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Universdad Maimonides has evaluated the impact of the Nestlé Healthy Kids Program (Niños Saludables) on children’s consumption
habits and their knowledge of food. Results included decreasing percentages of children who ate vegetables only once a week and those who did not consume them at all, and an increase in knowledge of nutrients of different food products.
Read the contribution
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