Vytenis Andriukaitis: A Commissioner’s fight against the rise of diabetes in Europe As a heart surgeon, you could wager that Lithuanian EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, is well qualified to understand the effects of lifestyle and food choices on anatomy, especially the effects of a poor diet. At a time when diabetes has become the trademark chronic illness of a generation, the Commissioner is looking at a holistic approach to tackling Europe’s largely lifestyle-related pandemic. Interview by Richard Forsyth
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lthough he enjoyed a post as the former Health Minister of Lithuania, Andriukaitis has been a surgeon for most of his career. He was in fact the first surgeon to be put in charge of a EU health policy and of course, it makes perfect sense for someone who has had the highest level of training in the medical profession to comprehend the direct correlation between what we eat and drink and our health. Andriukaitis is looking into strategies to address an issue that has become one of Europe’s most disturbing food linked healthcare problems, namely, the escalating pandemic that is diabetes. In this interview, EU Research asks the Commissioner just how bad the problem has become and what can be done to stem its impact on future generations.
EU Research: Diabetes seems to have become THE lifestyle disease of this era through bad eating and lifestyle choices. Just how serious a challenge is the spread of this chronic illness?
Vytenis Andriukaitis: The rise in diabetes in the EU and globally is nothing less than alarming. The number of the world’s adults living with diabetes has risen from 153 million to 415 million in the past 35 years, and within the EU, 32 million people or 7% of the adult population are currently living with diabetes. With demographic ageing and growing rates of obesity, this figure is likely to increase.
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