Over half of Israeli adults are overweight or obese, Knesset Health Committee told |
With 50 to 60 percent of Israeli adults now categorized as overweight or obese, acting Knesset Health Committee chair MK Tsega Melaku of the Likud party called on Wednesday for an immediate investment of NIS 100-200 million ($35 million to $70 million) for the prevention and treatment of obesity.
During the hearing, lawmakers and health officials said that a lack of government investment in prevention and treatment already costs the economy NIS 30 billion ($10 billion) per year.
The current budget for obesity programs is NIS 17 million ($6 million).
In Arab society, obesity rates are higher than among Jews. Among Ethiopian immigrants there has been a dramatic increase in diabetes diagnoses, from 0.4% in 1991 to 14% today.
While 18.8% of first graders are classified as overweight or obese, that number jumps to 31.4% by the seventh grade.
Officials said that the sharp uptick in overweightness is due to the high cost of medications, inadequate health services in the country’s peripheral regions and in low-income areas, and the lack of linguistically and culturally accessible educational materials on obesity prevention and treatment.
According to the World Health Organization, in 2022, one in eight people in the world were living with obesity. Worldwide adult obesity has more than doubled since 1990, and adolescent obesity has quadrupled.
A 2022 Health Ministry survey found that the rate of obesity and excess weight in Israel is high compared to the rest of the world.
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