Global Obesity Summit held this week in Jackson

Source: Press release

JACKSON — The Global Obesity Summit 2010 will be held this week at the Jackson Convention Center.

Internationally renowned scientists, clinicians, state leaders, business leaders, and health care policy makers will discuss innovative solutions to the causes of obesity, preventive strategies, and therapeutic management approaches.

This summit marks the founding of the Center for Obesity, Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases Research.

Obesity and related cardiovascular and metabolic diseases have rapidly become critical health problems in Mississippi as well as major challenges to the health care system.

• Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will give the keynote address Thursday from 8-8:30 a.m.

• Dr. Kenneth Cooper of the Cooper Clinic in Dallas will be the keynote speaker at a banquet Wednesday night beginning at 7 p.m.

• Rep. Bennie Thompson will discuss the socioeconomics of obesity at noon on Thursday, followed by fitness guru Donna Richardson Joyner, member of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition.

• The summit will conclude with a reception and dinner at the Mississippi Museum of Art where Sen. Roger F. Wicker will give the keynote address.

• Chef Luis Bruno will be having a cooking demonstration from noon-1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 10.

• At 3:15 p.m. on Nov. 10, Karen Miller-Kovach, chief scientific officer for Weight Watchers International, will speak.

• Former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott and Michael Espy will participate in a panel discussion on federal policy Thursday, Nov. 11.

This conference, sponsored by the University of Mississippi Medical Center and Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership, is endorsed by the American Physiological Society, the Inter-American Society of Hypertension, the Council for High Blood Pressure Research of the American Heart Association, and the Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism of the American Heart Association.