Experts liken fight against fat to anti-smoking campaign

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2007

NEW ORLEANS (AFP) — The fight against obesity can only be won if tackled with the same determination as the decades-old US campaign to end cigarette smoking, leading experts in America's battle of the bulge say.

"It took almost 40 years to start to change tobacco, and I think we are already beginning to change obesity," said William Dietz, who directs programs related to chronic disease prevention at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dietz spoke to AFP on the sidelines of a major conference this week organized by the Obesity Society, an organization of researchers dedicated to ending what has become one of America's most serious health problems.

Nearly 200 million Americans -- fully two thirds of the US population -- are considered...