Debate on the impact of food and diet on obesity

This debate was originally scheduled for 13 January. 

The NHS defines ‘obese’ as a term used to describe a person who has excess body fat.[1] The World Health Organization (WHO) defines it as a disease impacting most body systems, which leads to a range of noncommunicable diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.[2]

Obesity and its complications can reduce a person’s lifetime and quality of life. People with obesity are at increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, depression, cancer, reproductive problems and osteoarthritis.[3]

The increase in the prevalence of obesity has become an area of concern for global health. Worldwide, obesity has more than doubled since 1990 and adolescent obesity has quadrupled.[4] In 2022, 2.5 billion adults aged 18 years and over were overweight and 16% were living with obesity.[5]

Obesity is a complex and multi-factorial condition with many causes. An over-simplified description of the most common cause is “eating too much and moving too little”. The same phrase can be expressed more accurately as an imbalance between energy consumed and energy expended.

The development of obesity is gradual, and usually results from a variety of poor diet and lifestyle choices over time.

Some examples of these include eating large amounts of processed or fast food that is high in fat and sugar, excessive alcohol consumption (which is often high in calories and sugar), eating excessive portion sizes, drinking too many sugary drinks and eating to improve mood (comfort eating) as opposed to responding to hunger.^[1]

This pack sets out the various nutritional and other factors contributing to obesity and government strategies on food and diet, as well as recent Parliamentary material and news items. 

[1]      NHS, Causes, Obesity, accessed 7 June 2023

[1]      NHS, Obesity, overview, accessed 31 December 2024

[2]      WHO, World Obesity Day 2022 – Accelerating action to stop obesity, 4 March 2022

[3]      NICE, Obesity, What are the complications?, August 2024

[4]      WHO, Obesity and overweight, 1 March 2024

[5]      WHO, Obesity and overweight, 1 March 2024