AMBITIOUS plans to reverse the rise in obesity in Wales depend on action from everyone, from individuals to the NHS and the Welsh Government.

The strategy published today to provide the framework to achieve that reverse - Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales - is in effect, a call to arms to everyone in Wales to do their bit.

If successful, Wales would be one of the first countries to see obesity rates decline, but it will take many years of concerted effort.

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In Wales, more than 60 per cent (1.5 million) of adults are overweight or obese. The figure increases by 10,000 every year, and if the trend continues, the rate will be 64 per cent by 2030.

A healthy weight is one of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of long term health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancers.

But preventing obesity is a complex challenge, with many contributing factors at individual, community, societal and global levels.

Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales focuses on prevention, with the plan comprising four themes:

• Healthy Environments: To support people to be able to make healthy choices, focusing on changing the way we shop, eat out, travel, and use outdoor spaces;

• Healthy Settings: Development of supportive environments to promote healthier choices, including childcare settings, schools and higher and further education, workplaces and community settings;

• Healthy People: Providing advice, information and support. This includes providing the opportunity for people to regularly discuss their lifestyle choices with health and care professionals;

• Leadership and Enabling Change: To drive improved leadership and accountability to deliver the strategy across all sectors.

“Obesity is projected to overtake smoking as the nation’s biggest public health challenge," said health minister Vaughan Gething.

"Too often people are confronted with unhealthy choices and bombarded with messages that promote unhealthy options. We need to redress the balance.Small steps towards healthier habits can create big change, and this is the basis of the strategy.

“Everybody needs to play a role, prevention cannot be achieved by Government, the NHS or any other individual sector alone.

“My ambition is for Wales to be one of the first countries in the world to witness declining rates of obesity. This will have a significant and long-lasting legacy for both our current and future generations.”