ABSTRACT

In 1976, a study group in the UK reported to the DHSS/Medical Research Council: ‘We are unanimous in our belief that obesity is a hazard to health and a detriment to well-being. It is common enough to constitute one of the most important medical and public health problems of our time…’ 1 In 1979, the US Department of Health published a similar report. 2 In the past twenty five years, many expert committees have issued the same warning, but the problem of obesity is rapidly becoming more serious in both developed and third world countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) 3 now calls it a ‘global epidemic’, and has concluded that the changing nature of the environment towards greater inducement of obesity (or the ‘Obesogenic Environment’) is mainly to blame. 4