The Netherlands Gets Dancing for World Record in Call for Action Against Obesity

The Netherlands Gets Dancing for World Record in Call for Action Against Obesity

BENNEKOM, The Netherlands, November 13/PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday 16 November at 11:15 a.m. more than 200,000 Dutch people will
be dancing simultaneously for five minutes as part of the 'Get the
Netherlands Dancing' campaign, an initiative by the Dutch Institute for Sport
and Exercise (NISB). The aim of the campaign is to call attention to exercise
as a resource in the fight against obesity. An important part of the campaign
is to break the current Guinness world record for simultaneous dancing. At
the moment it is held by Canada, where 196,569 people danced the hokey cokey
simultaneously on 9 April 2002.

Get the Netherlands Dancing

More than a thousand organizations all over the country are taking part,
from kindergartens to schools, from rehabilitation centers to health centers,
to wheelchair dancers, students, government employees, police and
firefighters. In many city halls there will be dancing with the mayor. These
tens of thousands of Dutch people will be dancing the same dance, to the
track 'What a Feeling' by the Hughes Corporation.

'Get the Netherlands Dancing' will kick off on 16 November in the city
hall of the government city, The Hague. Various members of the lower house of
Parliament, CEOs of companies and members of leading social organizations
will be joining in the dancing. Afterwards they will be debating how exercise
can put a stop to the growing problem of obesity.

Obesity in Europe and the Netherlands

One in four children in the European Union is overweight. This number is
growing year on year by around 400,000. Although not all European countries
record the number of their overweight or obese citizens, the European
Commission estimates that over 200 million adults in the EU may be overweight
(source: International Obesity Task Force, 2006).

In the Netherlands 13% of children and young people (aged 0-21) are
overweight. For adults the figure is 40%, 10% of whom are battling a serious
weight problem. If the current trend continues, in 2015 an estimated 15 to
20% of Dutch adults will be obese (source: Dutch Obesity Forum).

Exercise Standard

'Get the Netherlands Dancing' is part of the "30 Minutes' Exercise"
campaign, run by the Dutch Institute for Sport and Movement (NISB) on behalf
of the Ministry for Health, Well-Being and Sport. The NISB wants to encourage
Dutch people to exercise for half an hour at least five days a week. For
children and young people the Dutch Exercise Health Standard is an hour a
day.

For more information visit www.heelnederlanddanst.nl (in Dutch)

Source: Nederlands Instituut voor Sport en Bewegen

For more information: NISB, Juul van Rijn, +31(0)318-490900, cellphone +31(0)6-51977131; Nanette Hagedoorn, +31(0)6-26414314; or Jaap de Graaf, +31-(0)6-22201286. Copyright-free photos (high resolution) available at: www.heelnederlanddanst.nl

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