Obesity in Spain is the 7% of total health expenditure, which is 2,500 million euros a year . Involve indirect costs at least double that figure, so the cost of this growing public health problem over 5,000 million euros a year.

These data were made public yesterday by Juan Manuel Ballesteros, vocal advisor for the Spanish Food Safety Agency (EASA), in his lecture "Food: a basic of public health, " in the II Conference on Public Health " Building a healthy Madrid. " Ballesteros said that the most important health risk in the coming decades will be obese due to bad eating habits and lack of physical activity . As an example he said that the incidence of this disease in Europe has grown between 10% and 50% in the last ten years.

In the case of Spain , half the population now suffers from excess weight. The voice of the EFSA also referred to the child and adolescent obesity , which has doubled in the last 20 years, rising from 5% to 14% of the population. The reasons: poor diet, excess of fast food, eating dishes prepared with hidden fats, sugars and salt. This is compounded by lack of exercise . In this sense, Ballesteros said that two out of three Spanish children practiced an hour a day of physical activity. In addition, 89% of children watch television every day an average of 2.5 hours.

Regarding the NAOS Strategy launched by the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs to prevent obesity, improve eating habits and encourage physical exercise, said that Juan Manuel Ballesteros will need to wait at least ten years to begin to observe tangible and effective results.

Source: Consumer.es