KINGSTON, Jamaica – As a means of recognising the urgent need to reduce the level of obesity in the island, the Jamaica Association of Professionals in Nutrition and Dietetics’ (JAPINAD) focus for this administrative year is ‘Obesity Prevention and Reduction’.

JAPINAD will be celebrating their 13th anniversary next week, July 19 to 25, which has also been designated as ‘National Nutrition Week’.

National Nutrition Week (NNW) will begin with a church service at 11:00 am on Sunday at the Emmanuel Apostolic Church in Portmore St Catherine, and will also feature an International Obesity Conference from July 22-23 at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston.

The theme for the conference is “Tackling Obesity through partnership, policy and practice using a multisectoral approach”.

On a global scale, 52 per cent of adults (aged over 18 years) were overweight or obese in 2004 and it was estimated as much as 13 per cent of children worldwide were overweight or obese.