ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes some of the known evidence linking obesity to adverse health consequences. It discusses potential initiatives and frameworks-seeking solutions. Obesity is a worldwide pandemic. Obesity is a disease associated with multiple other chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. The obesity epidemic represents an enormous global health problem affecting both developed and underdeveloped nations, both genders, and every ethnicity. Obesity is, in many ways, the quintessential lifestyle disease. It is abundantly clear that obesity is a complicated multi-factorial problem resulting from numerous internal and external influences which impact on the obese individual. The fact that obesity represents an urgent national health imperative has been underscored by numerous evidence-based documents. The chapter concludes with recommendations for individual healthcare professional involvement to help stem the epidemic of obesity, with a particular emphasis on the interaction of healthy eating and active living as key components of energy balance.
