Obesity in Sweden

I write this note from Stockholm, where I am attending the International Congress on Obesity.  The ICO is held once every four years - sort of the World Cup of obesity researchers - covering a broad front from basic science to public health.  I gave an invited talk here yesterday on obesity and cancer risk, and since then have been sitting in on diverse types of talks.  I am especially struck by the following observations:

• The genetics of obesity are very unclear.  Genome-wide association studies indicate obesity is even more complex than diabetes as a genetic disease.

• The basic science of obesity as well as the drug development approaches seem to all point to appetite control and satiety as being most important.  There will likely be new drugs soon to be approved for obesity (appetite suppressants).

• There is more optimism here in Europe for turning around the obesity epidemic than I sense in the US.  Indeed, progress is being made in many European countries now with childhood obesity, resulting from fairly simple types of interventions in pre-school and school settings.

• The Australians seem to be ahead of the curve in organizing multi-factorial community interventions that seem to be sustainable.  We need to learn more from them.

• The tea breaks here feature cookies that are about 20% the size of the tea-break cookies at US meetings.

My summer has been busy - first, teaching the annual cancer prevention class in June, then a 2 week family vacation catching fish on a Michigan lake, and now Stockholm.  I look forward to returning to Denver tomorrow and seeing how much I weigh.