To help understand the condition in its entirety, a new book about obesity and its management in adults and children from scientific, clinical and social perspectives is published this month.

Obesity is associated with many diseases, particularly heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer, and is most commonly caused by a combination of excessive dietary calories, lack of physical activity and genetic susceptibility.

The book entitled ‘Obesity: Science to Practice’, includes contributions from world leaders in obesity research and clinical practice and contains extensive coverage of diabetes, metabolic syndrome and other complications

Launched at the European Congress on Obesity in Amsterdam earlier this month, editor, Gareth Williams, Professor of Medicine at the University of Bristol and co-editor, Professor Gema Frühbeck, Head of the Metabolic Research Laboratory of the University of Navarra, Spain, said: "Editing this book turned out to be an even bigger job than we'd expected - because obesity is such a fast-moving field and one that has such an enormous impact on every society as well as every system in the body.

“We're very grateful to all our contributors for having captured the essence of the scientific background and current clinical practice, and to Wiley-Blackwell for having produced such an outstandingly beautiful book."

The book is published by Wiley-Blackwell, price £100, ISBN 978 0 470019115.