EU and US representatives launch joint bid to combat obesity

THE gap between obesity levels in the US and the EU is closing rapidly with campaigns encouraging people to eat healthily and exercise more having little effect.

Officials, representatives from the food and advertising industries and health promoters from both sides of the Atlantic got together in Brussels yesterday to discuss new strategies to tackle the problem.

A quarter of Europe’s children are obese and in danger of developing the diseases of old age such as type two diabetes. The number is growing by 400,000 a year. Between 10% and 27% of European men and between 10% and 32% of women are obese, with those living in the southern countries more likely to be heavier.