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Obesity increases the risk of cardiovascular, renal, liver and respiratory diseases, musculoskeletal and neuropsychiatric disorders, diabetes, some cancers, adverse reproductive and obstetric outcomes, and severe COVID-19. Obesity is currently more prevalent than in the late twentieth century 1 , and since the 1990s, the term ‘epidemic’ has been used to describe its rise 2 , 3 .

Change in the prevalence of obesity in a population is driven by changes in height and weight, which themselves result from the quantity and quality of nutrition, the living environment and physical activity.…