The Lancet Issues Report on Obesity, Undernutrition and Climate Change

The Lancet Commission has issued a report on “The Global Syndemic,” a combination of “three pandemics—obesity, undernutrition, and climate change.” The report was intended to focus on obesity as the Commission did in similar reports issued in 2011 and 2015, but the authors apparently found the roles of undernutrition and climate change to be key in understanding global obesity during the process of preparing the report and ultimately expanded its scope. The Commission’s recommendations to improve “The Global Syndemic” include implementing stronger laws at national and lower levels, strengthening accountability systems and “creating sustainable and health-promoting business models,” such as “eliminat[ing] or redirect[ing] subsidies away from products that contribute to The Global Syndemic.” The Commission also suggested that governments “reduce the influence of large commercial interests in public policy development … so that governments can implement policies in the public interest that benefit the health of current and future generations, the environment, and the planet.”