ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book shows obesity is complex and its causes are multi-factorial across biological, psychological, economic, social, and cultural domains. The Analysis Grid for Environments Linked to Obesity (ANGELO) and International Obesity Task Force Working Group conceptual frameworks are useful tools for theorising and representing our emerging understanding of the multiple scales, sectors and settings that interact to create obesogenic and leptogenic environments. Barry M. Popkin discusses the implications for the global health burden, particularly with regard to health outcomes such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma and cancer. Social practices around food consumption and mobility are embedded within the culture of households and communities, a likely contributory factor to the elusiveness of effective change strategies. Obesity has proven impervious to public health messages and clinical treatment targeting individual-level behavioural change.
