With all these new data and improved understanding of what causes obesity and its health care burden and costs, the lead author of the fourth and final article (Lancet 2011;378;838-47) in the series said that it's time for governments and policy makers to act.
“Governments certainly need to lead obesity prevention, but so far few have shown any leadership whatsoever,” commented Steven L. Gortmaker, Ph.D., of the department of society, human development, and health at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.
Dr. Gortmaker and his colleagues noted that the U.N. meeting on noncommunicable diseases “is an important opportunity for the international community to provide the leadership, global standards, and cross-agency structures needed to create a global food system that offers a healthy and secure food supply for all.”
The research was conducted under the auspices of the Collaborative Obesity Modeling Network as part of the Envision Project and supported by the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research, a collaboration of the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The NIH and the NIDDK provided additional funding.
All authors declared that they had no conflicts of interest.