By Dr Nadim Hauboubi
(in Volume 25)
Dr Nadim Hauboubi’s presentation was thought provoking and illustrated how we live in an ‘obes-ogenic’ environment where the combination of fast food diets and sedentary lifestyles makes the risk of becoming and staying obese high. The presentation showed that populations with high rates of overall rates of general physical activity such as walking were the most healthy.
Dr Haboubi emphasised that outdoor recreation and interaction with the environment that may include physical activity and activities to promote healthy eating like gardening are positive. However the problem of obesity is such that although preventative measures are clearly needed the fact is that many people are extremely obese now and the health risk so severe that clinical intervention including that surgery may be necessary.
Dr Naboubi advocated that obesity be understood and treated in terms of being a disease, a disease with many factors including those of genetics, psychological, and social. However the NHS and as yet does not define obesity as a disease. Dr Haboubi belives that there is not been enough research into obesity. He argued that obesity needed to be tackled on a multidisciplinary front and this includes research and development into how to curb an obesogenic’ environment.
The role of the outdoor recreation sector is not only to help people become more active but is also to help reduce obesogenic environments overall.
