Obesity timebomb will ruin a generation
and for the NHS. Prevention is always better than a cure and we are already taking action to protect the health of our next generation, with plans to reduce children’s exposure to sugary and fatty foods and get them moving more in school each day.’
The data revealed a strong link between children’s weight and that of their parents, as 28 per cent of children with obese mothers were also obese. This compared with 8 per cent of children whose mothers were a healthy weight.
There is also a stark regional divide, with childhood obesity in the most deprived areas more than twice as high as in the least deprived areas.
Dr Giota Mitrou, director of research at the World Cancer Research Fund, said: ‘This new data is frightening. Being overweight or obese increases the risk of different types of cancer, so this data serves as a reminder that the Government should be doing more to tackle our obesity crisis.
‘We call on governments to introduce policies that make our environments healthier, such as restrictions on junk food marketing and subsidies on healthy foods, to help people make healthier choices.’
It also emerged yesterday that women living in British cities are more obese than those in the country. This goes against the trend across the rest of the Western world, where those in the countryside are heavier.
Researchers analysed the height and weight data of more than 112million adults across urban and rural areas of 200 countries and territories between 1985 and 2017.
Height and weight can be used to calculate Body Mass Index, or BMI, the measurement used to check whether an individual has a healthy weight for their height.
People living in the country were 13lb heavier than city dwellers on average. But in the UK, women are slightly fatter in cities than in the country, according to the research by Imperial College London and published in the journal Nature.
THE Mail makes no apology whatsoever for repeatedly highlighting the ticking timebomb of obesity in Britain.
The crisis is reaching a truly terrifying scale – and bringing in its wake horrendous long-term problems. Suffice to say, new figures published by the NHS make extremely unpleasant reading.
Almost one in three adults are obese, while hospital admissions linked to the condition have rocketed 15 per cent in a year to 711,000. Most scandalously, a fifth of children now leave primary school obese.
That a generation of youngsters – through no fault of their own – risks a lifetime of illhealth, including diabetes and heart disease, is nothing short of a national scandal. The reasons are myriad. Food manufacturers peddle fizzy drinks and snacks bursting with fats and sugar. Depressingly, experts say children as young as three recognise the logos of fast food restaurants before they know their ABC.
Schools have cut PE lessons and axed competitive sport. And disgracefully, councils have sold off playing fields to rake in short-term funds. But ultimately, parents must bear their share of blame. Too often they fail to give themselves and their offspring a healthy diet.
And too frequently they allow children to inhabit a sedentary virtual world, glued to the internet and video games rather than playing out and working off the flab.
Yet there are pioneering classes that successfully teach parents to be stricter with their children – radically reducing obesity. The cost? A fraction of the astronomical sums spent tackling an epidemic which places an enormous strain on the overstretched NHS. Then there is the personal misery of those afflicted.
No one wants a nanny state meddling in their lives. But unless individuals and firms begin to accept responsibility for the catastrophe, that may be the only option.