Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems. Obesity is the second leading preventable cause of death worldwide after smoking.
In the last decade, obesity and overweight have become a global problem – according to the World Health Organization (WHO) back in 2005 approximately 1.6 billion adults over the of age 15+ were overweight, at least 400 million adults were obese and at least 20 million children under the age of 5 years were overweight.
The scale of the obesity problem has a number of serious consequences for individuals and government health systems.
