Meera Shekar

Reem Alsukait

Mohammed Alluhidan

Taghred Alghaith

Hussah Alghodair

Christopher Herbst

Overweight and obesity constitute a major global epidemic that has grown substantially. They are particularly alarming in Saudi Arabia, where more than half of the adult population is overweight and one out of five people are obese. Additionally, the prevalence of all noncommunicable diseases (NCDs)--such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancers--has increased substantially in recent decades, and today they are the leading cause of disability and death in the country. While the causes of overweight and obesity are complex and numerous, several innovative and multisectoral evidence-based interventions are emerging globally. Saudi Arabia has already embarked on the design and implementation of several such interventions and is committed to further expanding and scaling up such efforts in order to meet national goals and achieve results. This book builds on this work by laying out the remaining challenges while highlighting the opportunities lying ahead. The book provides new evidence and analysis on obesity in Saudi Arabia in order to support planning efforts on obesity prevention in the country. This includes examining the current prevalence of obesity and its risk factors, estimating the health and economic burden associated with obesity in the country, exploring the relationship between obesity and COVID-19, and identifying existing obesity prevention efforts and ways to enhance their impact based on the latest evidence. Finally, the book explores the use of a food system approach to connect human health and the environment, including through the production of a Saudi-specific Nutrient Profiling Model to help guide nutrition and obesity-related policies.

Consequences and Solutions

Overweight and Obesity in Saudi Arabia

Bill Pritchard

Rodomiro Ortiz

The concept of food and nutrition security has evolved and risen to the top of the international policy agenda over the last decade. Yet it is a complex and multi-faceted issue, requiring a broad and inter-disciplinary perspective for full understanding. This Handbook represents the most comprehensive compilation of our current knowledge of food and nutrition security from a global perspective. It is organized to reflect the wide scope of the contents, its four sections corresponding to the accepted current definitional frameworks prevailing in the work of multilateral agencies and mainstream scholarship. The first section addresses the struggles and progression of ideas and debates about the subject in recent years. The other sections focus on three key themes: how food has been, is and should be made available, including by improvements in agricultural productivity; the ways in which politico-economic and social arenas have shaped access to food; and the effects of food and nutrition systems in addressing human health, known as food utilisation. Overall, the volume synthesizes a vast field of information drawn from agriculture, soil science, climatology, economics, sociology, human and physical geography, the nutrition and health sciences, environmental science and development studies.

Routledge Handbook of Food and Nutrition Security

Susan Horton

Christine McDonald

Ajay Mahal

Jana Krystene Brooks

Action against malnutrition is needed more than ever. An additional US$10.3 billion a year is required from national and international public resources to successfully attack undernutrition worldwide. This would benefit more than 360 million children in the 36 countries with the highest burden of undernutrition home to 90 percent of the stunted children globally. Since early childhood offers a special window of opportunity to improve nutrition, the bulk of the investment needs to be targeted between pre-pregnancy until two years of age. 'Scaling Up Nutrition: What Will It Cost?' notes that investment will yield high returns through thriving children, healthier families, and more productive workers. This investment is essential to make progress on the nutrition and child mortality Millennium Development Goals and to protect critical human capital in developing economies. The human and financial costs of further neglect will be high. This call for greater investment in nutrition comes at a time when global efforts to strengthen health systems provide a unique opportunity to scale up integrated packages of health and nutrition interventions with common delivery platforms, thereby reducing costs. 'Scaling Up Nutrition: What Will It Cost?' has benefited from the expertise of many international agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and research institutions. This book will be of interest to policy makers, public health officials, nutritionists, government officials, and all those interested in improving child nutrition and health outcomes.

What Will It Cost?

Scaling Up Nutrition

Barry Popkin

Obesity is a global ticking time bomb with huge potential negative economic and health impacts, especially for the poor. As of 2016, an estimated 44 percent of adults (more than two billion) worldwide are overweight or obese, and over 70 percent of them live in low- or middle-income countries, dispelling the myth that obesity is a problem only in high-income countries. The global obesity epidemic presents a formidable challenge to human capital acquisition, national wealth accumulation, and the goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. Given the renewed global focus on human capital, its links to the obesity epidemic, and the growing evidence base for double- and triple-duty actions, there is both an urgent need for action and a great opportunity for engagement that will require both a whole-of-government and a whole-ofdevelopment-partner approach. Countries and global partners need to act urgently to address this ensuing epidemic, with emphasis on interventions that require corrective public action rather than one of individual responsibility.

Health and Economic Consequences of an Impending Global Challenge

Obesity

Obesity is a global ticking time-bomb with huge potential negative economic and health impacts, especially for the poor. Countries and global partners need to act urgently to address this ensuing epidemic with emphasis highlighting interventions that require corrective public action rather than one of individual responsibility.

Meera Shekar

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