TEHRAN — Iranian Health Minister Hassan Qazizadeh-Hashemi warned about the unprecedented increase of chronic diseases across the world.

Addressing the 9th Global Conference on Health Promotion in Shanghai, China, Qazizadeh-Hashemi stressed the need for establishing a close correlation between diet and health plans as a key to sustainable development, IRNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

Referring to the conference’s four themes, namely healthy cites and human settlement, action across sectors, social mobilization, and health literacy, the minister considered them as the foundation blocks for achieving the sustainable development goal.

He further underscored healthy diet and food safety as being tightly interwoven with sustainable development and that both hunger and obesity are a matter of deep concern for rich and poor countries and they would get worse by 2025.

Currently some 1.2 billion people are suffering from obesity globally which is twice as big as the number of those suffering from hunger, he lamented.

Countries will experience a dramatic growth in the number of premature deaths by 2050 as unhealthy food will be much more consumed than fruits and vegetables, he added.

He went on to explain that flawed food policies in the past and lack of a main organization in charge of food related matters have resulted in the current problems.

In Iran a supreme council for health and food safety which is headed by President Hassan Rouhani is attempting to guarantee health care issues in all policy making procedures in the country, he highlighted.

The council also has branches in provinces of Iran and make sure of observing health factors in the process of policy making, he noted.

He additionally pointed out that Iran’s national action plan to fight non-communicable diseases which was also endorsed by World Health Organization (WHO) is also fighting factors causing premature deaths.

He expressed hope for a better and healthier world in 2030.

The 9th Global Conference on Health Promotion (9GCHP) is co-organized by WHO and the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) of the People’s Republic of China November 21 to 24, 2016.

It will direct and guide member states on the practical application of evidence-based health promotion concepts, approaches and mechanisms for achieving sustainable development goals.

MQ/MG