Harvard Public Health Chair Advocates Strategies to Reduce Obesity

Harvard School of Public Health Chair of Nutrition Walter Willett recently published an editorial in BMJ, urging policy makers to consider a range of strategies to curb obesity rates and thereby reduce the incidence of diabetes and cardiovascular mortality. The April 9, 2013, editorial responds to a study concluding that population-wide weight loss in Cuba between 1980 and 2010 “was accompanied by diabetes mortality falling by half and mortality from coronary heart disease falling by a third,” while a rebound in body weight “was associated with an increased diabetes incidence and mortality, and a deceleration of the decline in mortality from coronary heart disease.” Manuel Franco, et al., “Population-wide weight loss and regain in relation to diabetes burden and cardiovascular mortality in Cuba 1980-2010: repeated cross sectional surveys and ecological comparison of secular trends,” BMJ, April 2013.

“The current findings add powerful evidence that a reduction in overweight and obesity would have major population-wide benefits,” writes Willett of the study. “Medical treatment of people at high risk for disease will have limited impact on mortality rates if the primary causes of disease are not dealt with, and reviews agree that solutions will require multisectoral approaches. Potential strategies include education efforts, redesign of built environments to promote physical activity, changes in food systems, restrictions on aggressive promotion of unhealthy food and drinks to children, and economic strategies such as taxation.”