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Obesity to cut nearly 2 years off Swiss life expectancy

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Between 2020 and 2050 obesity is forecast to reduce life expectancy by 2.7 years across the OECD, according to a recently published OECD report.

Obesity to cut 2 years off Swiss life expectancy
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In Switzerland obesity is forecast to shave almost 2 years (1.93) off life expectancy between 2020 and 2050, according to OECD calculations. Its expected impact on Swiss healthy life expectancy (HALE) is -2.4 years.

In addition to shorter lives, large waistlines are burning an ever bigger hole in household budgets via taxes and health insurance premiums. The OECD predicts obesity will consume 8.4% of global health spending over the next 30 years. In Switzerland, obesity is forecast to cost close to CHF 2 billion a year between 2020 and 2050.

In addition to loss of life and additional healthcare costs, obesity is predicted to shave 2.4% off Swiss GDP.

In Switzerland 41.8% of the population is obese or overweight, leading to higher rates of obesity related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardio vascular disease, dementia and cancer.

The key drivers of the obesity epidemic are well known: excessive calorie consumption and insufficient exercise.

However, the solution is less straight forward. To tackle the problem the OECD suggests changes to food labelling, food advertising restrictions, taxes on unhealthy foods and the promotion of exercise by doctors and schools. It calculates these measure would deliver a six-times return on investment.

The report singles out calorie dense foods as a key culprit in rising obesity. The wide range of food calorie density makes quantity a terrible guide for how much to eat. For example, a small cube of hard cheese has the same calories as a head of broccoli. How something is cooked is critical too. French fries have around four times (3.8) the calories as the same weight of boiled potato.

Then there is what we drink. A glass of soda or fruit juice typically contains more than 100 kcal. A glass of water contains none.

More on this:
The Heavy Burden of Obesity – OECD report (in English)

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Question of the week: why are so many more men than women obese or overweight?

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In Switzerland, like much of the world, far more men than women are overweight or obese.

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In Switzerland more than twice as many men (42%) as women (20%) are overweight or obese.

62% of men in Switzerland between the ages of 50 to 64 are obese or overweight. The same figure for women is 40%, a still alarming figure.

54% of men between the ages of 25 and 49 are obese of overweight compared to 28% of women of the same age.

The excess-weight problem seems to start early. 33% of young males (15-24) in Switzerland are obese or overweight compared to 17% of females of the same age.

Obesity in Switzerland costs nearly CHF 8 billion a year, or around CHF 1,000 per person. The most costly obesity-induced ailments are depression (22%), osteoarthritis – extra weight stresses joints and fat tissue produces proteins associated with joint inflammation (21%),  diabetes (19%), heart disease (19%) and asthma (10%).

Some experts think men are less likely to view excess weight as a problem and are less likely to diet or join a weight loss programme. Why is this?

The obesity figures are based on the body mass index (BMI).

More on this:
Swiss government obesity statistics (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now

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World Obesity Day – how Switzerland measures up

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11 October 2017 is World Obesity Day. According to the World Obesity Foundation, 2.7 billion adults worldwide will suffer from being overweight or obese by 2025. Including obese and overweight children pushes the number even higher.

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A study published in 2016 by Switzerland’s Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) found that 43% of Switzerland’s population was overweight or obese. Of these 30% were overweight and 13% obese. This rate of obesity was the same as the global average in a 2014 study.

In Switzerland, the problem is far greater among men. A study estimates that 57% of Swiss men over 20 are obese or overweight. The same percentage for Swiss women is 16%.

The gender pattern is the same for children. In Switzerland, 7% boys under 19 are obese, while only 5% of girls are.

The World Obesity Foundation says obesity is responsible for a significant proportion of non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, liver disease and many types of cancer. It forecasts the associated medical bill reaching US$1.2 trillion per year by 2025 if nothing is done.

One tool in the fight against obesity is taxes on unhealthy foods. A sugar tax in Mexico reduced the consumption of unhealthy drinks by 6%. Numerous other countries have made similar moves.

Other research suggests taxes have little impact on food choice. People continue to buy what they like to eat rather than save money. However, even if these taxes don’t reduce unhealthy food consumption, they could at least be used to cover some of the additional burgeoning health costs.

Many experts describe the problem as food addiction. For a long time, Harvard-trained doctor, medical school dean and former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, David Kessler, has been saying that foods high in fat, salt and sugar alter brain chemistry compelling us to overeat. Neurobiological studies have demonstrated similarities in the brain activity associated with drug use and some food consumption, particularly sweet foods.

Perhaps the world needs an abrupt wake up call to break its unhealthy food addiction. A BBC documentary, entitled How to Stay Young, which puts participants through a barrage of tests to calculate their real body age, provides such a shock to its participants. Richard, an obese 49-year old man, starts crying when he discovers his real body age is 92.

The stark reality compels him to change his lifestyle. By overhauling his diet and adding exercise to his routine his health and waistline are transformed in only 12 weeks.

World Obesity Day is supported by the Swiss Association for the Study of Obesity and the Swiss Diabetes Association.

More on this:
Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office report (in French) - Take a 5 minute French test now
Food Addiction: Current Understanding and Implications for Regulation and Research – Harvard University (in English)

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Switzerland scores well in exercise obesity study

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Researchers at Stanford University gathered smartphone data on 68 million days of physical activity from 717,527 individuals around the world. Accelerometry features automatically detected and counted their steps.

Out and about in Geneva – © Rosshelen | Dreamstime

The study, focused on 46 countries and designed to gain insight into exercise levels and their relationship to obesity, combined daily step information with obesity metrics.

An average Swiss resident clocked up 5,512 steps per day, ranking it 10th, and 9% above the global average. On obesity Switzerland came in 9th lowest.

As expected obesity levels declined with increased exercise. Chinese, the least obese, were the second biggest movers taking 6,189 steps a day.

Less expected was the discovery that average levels of obesity rise more when exercise levels vary greatly within a population, something the researchers named exercise inequality. Scott Delp, one of the team, said: “If you think about some people in a country as ‘activity rich’ and others as ‘activity poor,’ the size of the gap between them is a strong indicator of obesity levels in that society.”

An example of this is the difference between Britons and Swiss. An average UK resident walked roughly the same distance (5,444 steps) as an average Swiss one (5,512 steps), however UK obesity is 38% above the average while Swiss obesity is 36% below it.

There is however a marked difference in exercise inequality. The UK is ranked the 11th most unequal while Switzerland is ranked the 16th most equal. The UK is in the top quartile for exercise inequality while Switzerland is almost in the lowest third.

More walkable cities, such as New York and Boston, have lower exercise inequality than car-based cities, like the large centres in Texas. It seems that even the exercise-shy residents of New York prefer to walk than sit in traffic and chase hard-to-find car parks, sorting out the waistlines of those most likely to neglect them.

Saudi Arabia has the highest exercise inequality and the second highest obesity. At the other end, Hong Kong has the lowest exercise inequality and the third lowest obesity.

Overall exercise inequality correlated closely with activity-levels differences between men and women. In Saudi Arabia women walk far less than men. In Hong Kong everyone is out and about.

One thing the study doesn’t explain is why despite walking 18% further than women, men suffer higher rates of obesity. In Switzerland an average man walks 13% more steps than a woman yet is far more likely to be obese. A study funded by the Gates foundation estimates that 57% of Swiss men over 20 are obese or overweight. The same percentage for Swiss women is far lower at 16%. It seems Switzerland’s women are better at avoiding obesity despite moving less. Could it be the lady-sized meals, a phenomenon explained here by writer Diccon Bewes?

So what are the takeaways?

The way societies view gender and design their cities have an impact on health.

So if you’re hopping out for dinner, make sure you walk, take your partner, and order two lady-sized meals.

More on this:
Link to study (in English)
Data source: Tim Althoff, Rok Sosic, Jennifer L. Hicks, Abby C. King, Scott L. Delp, Jure Leskovec. “Large-scale physical activity data reveal worldwide activity inequality.” Nature 547.7663 (2017).

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Swiss eat poorly and excessively, according to government survey

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A recent study by Switzerland’s Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) found that 43% of Switzerland’s population was overweight or obese. Of these 30% were overweight and 13% obese. This rate of obesity was the same as the global average in a 2014 study.

© George Tsartsianidis | Dreamstime.com

© George Tsartsianidis | Dreamstime.com

The research, which used the Body Mass Index (BMI) to measure levels of obesity and excess weight, found that men (56%) suffered more than women (31%), older people between 65 and 75 (58%) suffered more than those 18 to 29 (23%), and those from Italian-speaking Switzerland (46%), were more likely to carry excess weight than German (44%) or French-speakers (42%).

Similar BMI-based figures for the US show that 36% of those 20 and over are obese.  A 2013 study places Switzerland 33rd in an OECD obesity ranking, well behind world obesity leaders, Mexico (1st), Iceland (2nd), USA (3rd), Chile (4th) and New Zealand (5th). In this comparison around 48% of Swiss were obese or overweight, a higher percentage than the 43% in the recent FSVO study.

BMI looks at the relationship between height and weight (kg/m2). It does not look directly at body fat. Someone 1.8m tall weighing between 62kg and 81kg would be considered normal. Anyone of this height over 97kg would be deemed obese.

The FSVO study also looked at diet make up. Here older people fared better. 55% of those between 65 and 75 ate three or more portions of fruit or vegetables per day compared to only 36% of those between 18 and 29. Overall, less than 10% were eating the recommended five or more daily portions. Those consuming the least were men aged 18 to 29. More than three quarters (76%) of this group ate two portions or less a day, with only 5% eating the recommended five or more.

More on this:
Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office survey results (in French) - Take a 5 minute French test now
Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office survey results (in German)

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Swiss kids are eating too much of the wrong stuff

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24 Heures.

A recently released study shows how badly Swiss children are eating. Only 10% of those between 11 and 15 eat fruit and vegetables several times a day. And while fruit and vegetables are not popular, the survey carried out by Swiss Addiction, shows that sweet foods are. Close to one third of children and adolescents eat sweets at least once a day, and over a quarter consume sugary drinks daily.

© Kwanchaichaiudom | Dreamstime.com

© Kwanchaichaiudom | Dreamstime.com

The situation was worse in 2002. Back then only 5.4% of this age group ate fruit and vegetables several times a day. The Swiss nutrition society recommends two portions of fruit and three portion of vegetables a day.

Poor diet is known to significantly increase the risk of becoming overweight or obese. According to Promotion Santé Suisse, an organisation focused on promoting good health in Switzerland, 17.3% of children in 2015 were overweight and 4.4% were obese. Swiss Addiction found that 25% of their sample of children had a weight abnormal for their age and one in ten was overweight. An obese child of 10 to 14 years old has an 80% chance of staying that way as an adult, and risks developing related diseases. Mindsets might be changing however. Children with bad eating habits were more likely to describe their health as fair or poor.

According the the Swiss federal office of public health, one person in Switzerland eats 5.4 kg of fruit, 6.2 kg of vegetables, 4.1 kg of bread and cereals, and 3.3 kg of meat and fish per month, amounts that have barely changed in recent years.

The number of people of “normal weight” across the Swiss population has dropped from 65% to 55% in the space of 20 years (1992 – 2012). Over this period the number of obese people has climbed 90%. In 2012 41% of the population were over weight or obese. Promotion Santé Suisse says that 13% of kids at nursery, 22% of primary school pupils and 25% of secondary school children are included in this group.

What can be done?

Swiss Addiction uncovered some tips in their research. School children who start their days with breakfast have better eating habits than those who skip this meal. In addition, those who eat with their parents appear to have healthier diets. The Swiss nutrition society recommends parents make eating pleasurable and educational. Get children involved in food preparation. “Pass on your eating habits by eating as a family as often as possible”, advice which assumes that parents eat healthily. The survey showed that only 11% of the population followed the Swiss nutrition society’s advice.

© Andres Rodriguez | Dreamstime.com

© Andres Rodriguez | Dreamstime.com

Some initiatives have been launched, in particular at the cantonal level. In Neuchatel a plan is being discussed to create laws related to sugary products, possibly a tax on sugar added during the manufacture of certain foods and drinks. The money would be used to prevent diabetes and obesity.

Response in other countries

In the recent British budget the chancellor announced a sugar tax would be launched in 2018. The plan would tax drinks with more than 5 grams of sugar per 100 ml at one rate and tax those with 8 grams or more at a higher rate. According to the Guardian, the chancellor told members of the British Parliament that “Five-year-old children are consuming their body weight in sugar every year. Experts predict that within a generation over half of all boys and 70% of girls could be overweight or obese. Obesity drives disease.”

Other countries such as Finland, France and Mexico have announced or implemented similar plans.

The Credit Suisse Research Institute’s 2013 study “Sugar: Consumption at a crossroads” estimated that nearly 400 million people worldwide were affected by type II diabetes and 20% were obese. 90% of the family doctors surveyed said they believed the sharp rise in diabetes and obesity was linked to excess sugar consumption. The associated global healthcare costs of excess sugar consumption were estimated at US$ 470 billion annually, or more than 10% of global healthcare spending.

More on this:
Full 24 Heures article (in French) - Take a 5 minute French test now

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