Poor diets and sedentary lifestyles hurt our health

The European Commission’s directorate-general for health and consumer protection and the European Union of Football Associations (UEFA) have teamed up to produce a 30-second television clip, which will be screened, free of charge, during the half-time intervals of UEFA Championship matches.

The clip, which aims to promote physical activity, incites people to take part in sport with the slogan ‘Go on, get out of your armchair!’ Presumably, UEFA would prefer viewers to wait until after the second-half of the game before doing so.

The short film is the latest in a line of Commission initiatives to counter the rising levels of obesity in Europe. Obesity is seen as one of the greatest health threats of the 21st century, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers. It is also a huge socio-economic burden, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates already accounts for 2-8% of health costs in some parts of Europe and may make the EU’s Lisbon Agenda goals of growth and jobs harder to attain.

The Commission has estimated that as many as 27% of Europe’s men and 38% of women are overweight or obese, as well as 22 million children. Overall obesity levels in southern Europe are higher than those in northern Europe. Spain, Italy, Portugal, Malta and Crete report overweight and obesity levels of more than 30% among 7-11-year-olds, while Ireland, Cyprus, Sweden, Greece and England (data is subdivided for separate parts of the UK) report levels of above 20%. France, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands and Bulgaria report overweight levels of 10-20% among this age group.

The root causes of this epidemic are clear: our lifestyles are sedentary and our diets poor. A recent EU barometer poll revealed that six out of ten Europeans said they had done little or no physical activity for recreation, sport and leisure purposes. If obesity levels are permitted to rise at the same rate as they did during the 1990s, the WHO has said that as many as 150 million adults and 15 million children in its European region (which comprises the 27 EU member states and a further 26, among them the former Yugoslav republics and the Russian Federation) may be obese by 2010.

In an attempt to counter these problems, the Commission has this year adopted two complementary white papers which address the need to promote physical activity among European citizens.

The May 2007 Commission white paper on nutrition, overweight and obesity-related health issues and the July 2007 white paper on sport emphasise the need for pro-active steps to reverse the decline in physical activity in recent years and put forward proposals to boost sports participation across the EU.

The European Commission’s directorate-general for health and consumer protection and the European Union of Football Associations (UEFA) have teamed up to produce a 30-second television clip, which will be screened, free of charge, during the half-time intervals of UEFA Championship matches.

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