Childhood obesity conference

Today the Dutch childhood obesity conference was held. This one day conference aims to inform professional in the field of prevention, treatment and care regarding childhood obesity about evidence based practice and new developments and insights in the field. I was invited to deliver a keynote lecture on prevention of overweight and obesity. In my talk I argued (again) that for effective prevention of childhood overweight and obesity a health protection approach -aiming to create and establish a more 'obesopreventive' instead of the present day 'obesogenic'  environment- is needed on top of a health promotion approach leaning heavily on health education and personal responsibility. Overweight and obesity are societal problems and society -at all levels from authorities, the private sector to families and individuals need to take joint responsibility.