Scotland is "sleepwalking" into an epidemic of obesity, an international expert will say today.
Scotland – and the UK – needs to change its approach to tackling obesity if it is to avoid reaching US levels of the problem, the Edinburgh conference is to be told.
Experts are gathering to talk about Sports and Exercise Medicine at a conference organised by the city’s Royal colleges of physicians and of surgeons.
And Professor Steven Blair will say that too much of the effort to combat obesity is centred on controlling diet.
Professor Blair says that public health measures need to do more to encourage exercise and greater activity.
He said: "An entire industry has built up around diet, but reducing our dietary intake alone will not solve our problems with obesity.
"Physical inactivity has become the biggest public health challenge of the 21st century and we have to become more active if we are to stop collectively sleepwalking into obesity. In simple terms, we are talking about changing the mind set from thinking ‘I must go on a diet’ to ‘I must become more active.’"
He added: "Obesity rates continue to rise and in international obesity terms, Scotland is not far behind the US.
"If we wish to prevent levels in Scotland reaching that of the US, greater emphasis has to be placed on exercise. This could involve creative solutions such as considering the provision of exercise advice, or indeed the prescribing of exercise, to patients by doctors and other health professionals."
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