Plenary Session 3 - Reframing obesity: The intersection of food, physical activity, and beyond
| Tuesday, April 29, 2025 |
| 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM |
| Federation Ballroom (Plenary) |
Details
Obesity is a chronic disease with a plethora of contributing risk factors, including genetics and epigenetic triggers such as insufficient nourishment, low physical activity, and environmental factors. In turn, these factors are compounded by an equally complex interplay of health, government, food systems, the media, and the environments in which we work and live. Obesity rarely travels alone, either accompanying or directly causing any number of other chronic diseases, from heart disease to cancer.
This plenary session will explore practical and implementable solutions to obesity and demonstrate how professionals can build their courage to navigate the political and commercial spheres to prevent food insecurity. By reflecting on how evidence has been used to implement successes and misses, governments can move towards tackling obesity more effectively.
Keynote Speakers (Bios are available at https://www.prevention2025.com/keynote-speakers):
• Dr Fiona Bull, Program Manager, Department of Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases, World Health Organization
• Professor Luke Wolfenden, Professor & NHMRC Investigator Fellow, The University of Newcastle
• Professor Mariana Chilton, Professor of Public Health Drexel University
Speaker
Dr Fiona Bull
Unit Head, Physical Activity, Department of Health Promotion
World Health Organization
Keynote 1
Professor Luke Wolfenden
Nhmrc Investigator Fellow
University Of Newcastle/hne Health
Reflecting on evidence and obesity prevention to guide future actions
Abstract
The use of evidence in obesity prevention is ever evolving. In the early 2000s there was little evidence available to guide governments. Today there is a pressing need for an understanding of how governments can best translate evidence into actions. Over the years, evidence has played a crucial role in key decisions – from obesity summits, and government investment into strategic demonstration projects, to the formation, and subsequent abolition, of the National Partnership Agreement on Preventive Health. By reflecting on the factors that promoted and impeded evidence-based actions, governments can move towards effectively tackling obesity.
Professor Mariana Chilton
Professor Of Public Health
Drexel University
The courage to navigate political and commercial determinants of food insecurity
Abstract
Food insecurity is referred to as a social determinant of disease. But newer frameworks such as the commercial determinants of disease help us to better understand how the politics of prevention are influenced by multi-national corporate interests. The food industry and related private sector companies can often thwart the best of public health prevention. Most of us seek to make sure people have consistent access to high quality, nutrient dense, plant-based food necessary for human and planetary health. But political and commercial interests make our work extremely challenging as we try to protect the health of people who are marginalized, especially women and children. Commercial interests are also entangled with how our society adapts to the climate catastrophe amidst a global swing toward right-wing politics where the needs of people who are living in poverty and precarity are often disregarded.
There are many strategies available to us to harness new partnerships, to work in solidarity with people who have been marginalized, and to work in a way that resists the temptation to fall in line with the status quo. But doing so takes a kind of courage that is not taught in school nor rewarded in our professional lives. In this talk I will lay out the underlying causes of food insecurity based on 25 years of research and political action outlined in my book, The Painful Truth about Hunger in America. I will demonstrate how solidarity with people who have experienced poverty can help professionals build their courage to navigate the political and commercial spheres to prevent food insecurity. These times require new strategies and an even deeper commitment to our highest calling that can ensure the flourishing and survival of humanity itself.
There are many strategies available to us to harness new partnerships, to work in solidarity with people who have been marginalized, and to work in a way that resists the temptation to fall in line with the status quo. But doing so takes a kind of courage that is not taught in school nor rewarded in our professional lives. In this talk I will lay out the underlying causes of food insecurity based on 25 years of research and political action outlined in my book, The Painful Truth about Hunger in America. I will demonstrate how solidarity with people who have experienced poverty can help professionals build their courage to navigate the political and commercial spheres to prevent food insecurity. These times require new strategies and an even deeper commitment to our highest calling that can ensure the flourishing and survival of humanity itself.
