Time to get real about childhood obesity with Dr Sandro Demaio. Episode #347

Did you know that the worldwide prevalence of obesity nearly tripled between 1975 and 2016? In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults and more than 340 million children were classified as overweight or obese. At the individual level and in our modern, obesogenic world, weight gain has become the norm—the biological and social path of least resistance. On this week’s podcast, Dr Sandro Demaio (@SandroDemaio) joins BJSM’s Daniel Friedman (@ddfriedman) to discuss childhood obesity and public health nutrition policy. After recently leaving his role as the WHO’s medical officer for NCDs and Nutrition, Sandro was appointed the CEO of EAT , a non-profit startup focused on food and sustainability. Formerly an Assistant Professor and Course Director at the University of Copenhagen’s School of Global Health, and a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, Sandro regularly shares his knowledge and ideas at international conferences, universities and public events. He founded the PLOS Global Health Blog, NCDFREE and festival21, and is currently a bestselling author and TV host. http://sandrodemaio.com/about In this conversation, Sandro addresses the following topics:        Our current state of obesity        Policies needed to address childhood obesity        Sugar-sweetened disease and the sugar tax        Role of the clinician in addressing the obesity pandemic   Further reading: Renzella, Jessica A., and Alessandro R. Demaio. "It’s time we paved a healthier path of least resistance." (2018): bjsports-2017. https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2018/03/07/bjsports-2017-098805 Murphy, Lisa, and Alessandro R. Demaio. "Understanding and removing barriers to physical activity: one key in addressing child obesity." (2018): bjsports-2017. https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2018/01/18/bjsports-2017-098546 Demaio, Alessandro. "A lifeSPANS approach: Addressing child obesity in Australia." Health Promotion Journal of Australia (2018). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hpja.44 Demaio, Alessandro, and Alexandra Jones. "The true price of sugar-sweetened disease: political inertia requires renewed, strategic action." The Medical Journal of Australia 209.2 (2018): 1. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2018/209/2/true-price-sugar-sweetened-disease-political-inertia-requires-renewed-strategic Beale, Anna L., and Alessandro R. Demaio. "Non-communicable disease risk factors: a call for primary care clinicians to act and to refer. Brief intervention, not silent abdication." (2017): bjsports-2017. https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2017/10/05/bjsports-2017-098475