Harmonizing the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome--focusing on abdominal obesity.

In 2009, important health organizations met to construct a Joint Scientific Statement (JSS) intended to harmonize the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome worldwide. The JSS aimed to unify the diagnostic criteria of metabolic syndrome, particularly in relation to whether to include abdominal obesity as a criterion of diagnosis. A large part of the JSS is devoted to discussing the diagnosis of abdominal obesity.

The infrastructure of obesity and the obesity epidemic: implications for public policy.

If present increases in the rate of obesity persist, by 2015 half of the population in the US could be obese. This article presents the case that the reason for the epidemic is an 'infrastructure of obesity' that fuels the phenomenon. To control this epidemic, public policy in general and health policy in particular need to shift from market oriented policies that favour individual choice to policies that regulate the food supply, to help dismantle the infrastructure of obesity.