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> Childhood

> Adolescence
The Fragility Stage

> Obesity In France

> Obesity In the World

> Obesity In Tunisia

> Scientific Findings

 

■ The Obesity in France:

The last national survey OBEPI, carried out in 2003 by the Institute Roche of Obesity with Sofres and in collaboration with Inserm and hospital Hotel-Dieu of Paris, reveals that obesity and overweight have continued to progress in France since 1997.
The proportion of overweight people or obese people increased by 36,7% to 41,6% between 1997 and 2003, with an increase of 13%. Over the same period, French people gained 1,7 kg of weight and the number of people suffering from massive obesity (or morbid obesity) doubled.

More and more children and elderly people suffer from obesity and overweight among which 19% of French children.

After 65 years, the prevalence of obesity is the same with men and women (around 15%). There are more than 5,3 million obese adult people and 14,4 million overweight people in France (Employment Survey of the INSEE:  French National Institute of Statistics and Research in 2002 on people above 15 years old). Obesity is a problem of public health and affects all ages and professions. In France, 16% of children aged between 6 and 15 years old are overweight (against 5% in 1980), 3,8% among whom are boys. Obesity is considered as an “epidemic” by the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM). Encountering high pressures from the food-processing industry, there are two measures (in articles 29 and 30 of the law of August 9, 2004) related to public health policy that should be implemented soon.

The American Association of Obesity (AOA), the INSERM and the National Institute of Health (INS) have become alarmed with the amazing progress of obesity in the world, in particular among children. Today in France, 1 child out of 10 is obese at the age of 10, that is to say the double rate of the 80’s. In the case of children from 6 to 12 years, there are 10 to 12% of them.  It is believed that if obesity occurs before puberty, its persistence rate in adulthood will be from 20 to 50% and from 50 to 70% if it occurs after puberty.
But obesity is not only a problem which concerns the USA and France, it concerns all the rich countries and it spreads like an epidemic in all developing countries where people have average or low incomes, and where the “economic transition” generates a “nutritional transition”, i.e. a modification of the eating practices, the lack of physical activity, and the deplorable food quality (junk food) that is produced by the agro-industries and characterized by high grease, sugar, and calorie contents.