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Tackling childhood obesity
Childhood obesity is on the increase - as are the associated health problems. But how can we help kids realise the benefits of healthy eating and exercise when tempting 'treats' are never far away?
Kids today are getting bigger. According to a survey published in the British Medical Journal in 2001, nearly 16 per cent of two-year-olds are overweight (and 6 per cent are obese) while more than 20 per cent of four-year-olds are overweight (and 7 per cent obese). Even more worryingly, the survey also found that in 1984, approximately 5 per cent of English boys tested were overweight - a decade later that figure had almost doubled to 9 per cent. These statistics are also similar for girls.
Since then, the figures have increased steadily. The government's latest health survey for England found that today, about 30 per cent of all children are either overweight or obese, figures which have increased 50 per cent since the mid-1990s. Until the early 1980s childhood weight figures had remained steady but over the last two decades they've increased rapidly and are showing no signs of slowing down.
Why, why, why?
Kids come in all shapes and sizes and grow at different rates and while there's nothing wrong with a chubby child, problems, both in the short- and long-term, begin when the child becomes seriously overweight or even obese. Doctors generally define a child as obese when the total body weight is more than 25 per cent fat in boys and 32 per cent in girls. So why are kids today piling on the pounds?
Basically, we're all eating too much fat and sugar and doing too little exercise. For children, an increasingly sedentary lifestyle spent in front of a telly that exposes them to up to 10 food commercials for every hour they watch, means that it's little wonder they're getting bigger. Children today do less exercise, play less sport and spend more time watching videos or playing computer games than they did 20 years ago. This combined with the barrage of high-fat, heavily advertised and easily available junk food marketed specifically at them makes weight gain almost inevitable.
Future problems
The problems associated with childhood obesity are numerous. Overweight children can be bullied by their peers, which can cause low self-esteem. Overweight kids are far more likely to grow up into overweight adults and therefore have a higher risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis and other serious health problems later in life. However, the increase in overweight children in the last 20 years has also seen a big rise in children's health problems associated with being overweight. In the short-term, overweight children are more likely to have high blood pressure, respiratory problems, cardiovascular conditions and an increased tendency of blood clotting. Recently, the first cases of adult diabetes have been diagnosed in overweight teenagers.
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