Obesity Study by OECD - Interesting Info.

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Canadians are far fatter than most compatriots in 32 other rich, industrialized countries, a comprehensive study reports Thursday.

On the plus side, we haven’t been getting that much worse.

And comprehensive prevention programs to fight obesity could save up to 40,000 lives in Canada a year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says.

“A common assumption is that individuals are in the best position to judge their own welfare,” the OECD says. But that doesn’t always work when people don’t realize the effect of what they eat.

Nor are only individuals at fault, the OECD says. Government subsidies for agriculture, transportation policies, and taxation on lifestyle goods play a role.

The OECD launched its campaign in 2007 because of the economic cost of obesity to rich countries, ironically parts of the world where public-health programs and readily available food have solved deadly problems of malnutrition and food and water-borne diseases.

What’s more, obese people die eight to 10 years sooner, earn less, take more days off work, and have lower productivity and a greater need of disability benefits than normal weight people, the OECD says.

Taking care of them costs health systems 25 per cent more than normal weight people because of their propensity for diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

“Obesity is a major health concern for OECD countries,” the study says. Before 1980s, obesity rates were generally well below 10 per cent. Since then, they’ve doubled or tripled

The three-year campaign by the OECD to get rich countries to deal with their obesity epidemics culminates Oct. 7-9 with a meeting of health ministers in Paris.

Canada’s seat at the “Fit not Fat” table will be as the joint fifth-worst of 33 countries, an improvement over 15 years ago. We’re tied with Iceland and Chile for overweight people, right behind the U.K., Australia and Ireland. Only Mexico, the U.S., New Zealand, the U.K. and Australia have more obese people.

Among the key OECD findings:

• The obesity rate in Canada is projected to climb by 5 per cent in the next 10 years.

• Two out of three men in Canada are overweight and one in four people are obese.

• Canadian women with poor education are almost twice as likely to be overweight. With men, education isn’t a factor.

• Prevention programs could save at least 25,000 deaths a year. Combining several styles of prevention programs could push that to 40,000 lives saved a year, at a cost of less than $200 million.

• In the long run, balancing lives saved against cost, Canada’s prevention programs would be cost-effective, the OECD says. The programs range from food labelling to counselling to food-advertising regulations.

The OECD prescription for a wide range of prevention programs costs “a tiny fraction” of overall health budgets, the study says.

Obesity rates are highest in the United States and Mexico and lowest in Japan and Korea among OECD countries.

Canada’s rate has risen more slowly than some other countries: The U.S., England and Australia have piled on the pounds dramatically since 1990. Even Korea’s relatively low rate has shot to above 30 per cent.