Obesity in Canada : Obésité au Canada : une approche pansociétale pour un Canada en meilleure santé : rapport du Comité sénatorial permanent des Affaires sociales, des sciences et de la technologie

That the papers and evidence received and taken and work accomplished by the committee on this subject during the Second Session of the Forty-First Parliament be referred to the committee; and That the committee submit its final report no later than March 31, 2016 and that the committee retain all powers necessary to publicize its findings until 180 days after the tabling of the final report. [...] Over the course of this study, the committee heard testimony from diet experts, nutrition researchers, food retailers and manufacturers, critics of the food industry, healthy living researchers and advocates, medical experts, health charities’ representatives, advocates of the social determinants of health, and the Assembly of First Nations. [...] CONTEXT In the simplest terms, overweight and obesity are the result of a sustained imbalance between the energy intake of an individual, namely food and beverage consumption, and the individual’s energy needs, namely, the sum of the body’s basic metabolic requirements plus additional physical activity. [...] That is, the drastic change in the global food supply, the huge increase in fast food outlets and the loss of a “food culture” to explain the change in eating habits over recent decades combined with the overall decrease in the daily activities of living, have resulted in the “obesogenic environment”: an environment that makes it too easy to eat poorly and remain sedentary. [...] Perishable foods cost more in Northern and remote communities due to a number of factors, including the cost of flying foods to each community, as well as the high cost of fuels and electricity in the North, which affect the cost of food storage and shelving.