2023-08-11 09:00:23
Cach year, the figures fall, and become more and more alarming. According to the League Against Obesity, in 2021, 17% of adults were obese, compared to 15% in 2012. This represents more than 8.5 million people. As for overweight individuals, this concerns 30% of French people. So, nearly one out of two French people is overweight or obese. Even more worrying, it is among children and the youngest that obesity and overweight have increased the most in recent years. In fact, 34% of children between the ages of two and seven suffer from these diseases.
Recent studies also show that overweight and obesity are social diseases in many respects. From the age of six, the children of workers are four times more affected by these two diseases than the children of executives.
Obesity and overweight also have an economic impact particularly high. In 2016, all expenditure related to medical care, prevention and the fight against overweight represented 1% of the French gross domestic product (GDP), i.e. more than 20 billion euros.
A chronic illness
Despite these alarming figures, the government does not seem to have taken the measure of the extent of this health scourge that obesity represents. Indeed, no real health policy making it possible to fight obesity effectively in France has been proposed. Now is the time to fix it. As parliamentarians, it is our responsibility to warn about the situation, in order to propose concrete and effective measures.
First of all, France must finally officially recognize obesity as a chronic disease. This is the choice made by Germany and Italy in particular. This is one of the essential conditions for better management of this disease. Then, in order to stop the progression of obesity in France, the government is obliged to support this recognition by developing a real prevention plan, focused on nutrition and psychological support.
For this, it is absolutely essential that health professionals be better trained in supporting patients. suffering from this pathology. The creation of a specialty in obesity offered to medical students would be a significant step forward.
Despite some recent legislative and regulatory advances which remain largely insufficient, it seems urgent to further regulate additives, to authorize only those which appear expressly in the list of products and substances used in the production of foodstuffs. Reducing the impact of food on young people is also essential. It is necessary that these messages are systematically accompanied by a nutritional declaration.
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