Tensions and contractions in Canada’s childhood obesity strategy
Canada is a world leader in health promotion, and has championed ground breaking international strategies on population health including the Ottawa Charter. The country has taken important steps to tackle non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and their risks factors: There is a national integrated framework as well as specific strategies to address key diseases and their associated risks factors including obesity. Equally important, with the endorsement of the United Nations Declaration on NCDs (UNGA) , Canada has recognized the global dimension of the NCDs challenge as well as committed to work towards better integrated, holistic, unified and coordinated approaches. Yet despite increased efforts, prevalence of NCDs remains stubbornly high even when compared to peers. Overweight and obesity, important predictors of chronic health problems like diabetes are at record high. Latest estimates from the OECD, an industralized country club, show that two out of three people are ov...