Three in 10 Turkish adults is overweight, academic says

Three in 10 Turkish adults are overweight or obese, with females with weight problems numbering twice as much as males and the rate among children countrywide averaging about 15 percent, according to a Turkish academic.

"About 30 percent of adults overall in Turkey are either overweight or obese," Abdullah Bereket, a professor of child endocrinology at Marmara University, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Thursday in an interview at Istanbul’s Lütfi Kırdar Conference Hall, where the 18th European Congress on Obesity was taking place May 25 to 28. Bereket said among these people, the number of females was almost twice as much as that of males.

Some 10 to 15 percent of children in Turkey are overweight and 5 to 6 percent are obese, according to Bereket, who said the rate was lower in rural areas and grew larger the bigger the city they lived in. "One would also like to know what the trend is: The number of obese and overweight children has doubled since the 1970s," he added.

Bad nutrition and idleness are the main factors in the rise in Turkish people’s overweight rates, said Bereket. "Gaining excessive weight is a slow process, thus people do not understand at the beginning. But when they realize it, it is too late," he said, adding that immediate action at both the individual and societal levels has to be taken to contain and reduce obesity rates.

Being overweight gives way to many diseases and disorders in a human’s body, including heart and cardiovascular diseases, orthopedic concerns and paralysis, psycho-social effects, liver diseases that could be lethal, difficult respiration while sleeping, and more, according to Bereket.  "At the individual level, we must be more active during the day, prefer fruits and vegetables to sugary beverages and sweets,” he said, adding that raising awareness was essential at the societal level. “Teachers, doctors, the media: all must contribute to raising awareness."

Solution must be found for youth

"Treating obesity is not easy, thus preventive measures are crucial," said Bereket, adding that children were a very important target group in this regard.

The rate of obese children in Istanbul has increased from 10 to 20 percent, according to research work conducted in previous years, Bereket said, adding that apart from sugary beverages, children’s fast food habits as well as a fall in children’s consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables were other factors that affect excessive weight gain in children.

"The situation is serious, but families and the society are still not aware of this fact. They do not perceive weight-gaining as a serious problem," said Bereket, adding that families tolerated children’s excessive weight gaining thinking that they could lose the weight in the future. "Measures have to be taken since the age of 4 and 5, if a child is overweight."

Obesity has become a serious health concern all over the world in general, and in Europe in particular, where 40-60 percent of adults and 24 percent of children of age 6 to 9 years old are over-weight or obese, according to Breda J. Wijnhoven, from the Copenhagen-based WHO’s Regional Office for Europe.

"We need leadership and need to involve different sectors, as well as concise and practical national plans, to address this issue," Wijnhoven told the Daily News on Thursday, adding that Turkey had a very good national plan on prevention obesity.


/Hurriyet Daily News/