Why Child Obesity is Levelling Off
Posted by Amelia Boothman on November 6, 2009Read 1 thought
Currently we have 1.5 million children in England who are overweight or obese, which increases their risk of health problems such as type 2 diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
The National Heart Forum has significantly downgraded its forecasts of a continued rise in obesity among children in England, following a new analysis of data. The rate of increase in childhood obesity may be starting to slow. It now predicts that by 2020 the proportion of boys aged 2-11 who will be overweight or obese will be 30% (not 42% as previously predicted) and for girls they now predict 27% not 48%. A similar trend his being observed in other countries, such as the US, France and Denmark.
The researchers said it was not clear why obesity levels might have levelled off, but thought government interventions and media coverage may have played a role. From my experience of talking to mothers and children about food over the last 18 months, I would certainly agree.
Parents constantly mention the new school programmes which focus on healthy eating. They are even bemoaning when their kids tell them the food they provide is not healthy enough! I believe it’s the kids who are dragging their parents kicking and screaming towards healthier eating, as their schools educate them on what they should be eating and the consequences of not doing so.
My hope is that this next generation of kids will be more thoughtful when feeding their children, rather than setting their kids out on a lifetime of illness, easily prevented by a simple change in diet.
All fair comments except that it is not that “simple” to change diets. A generation or two of bad food has given us a taste for lots of sugar and salt which makes it hard to change what “you” think is normal – just think how it first tasted when you didn’t have sugar in your tea or coffee.
This is really hard for children and it’ll take many years for tastes to change and therefore for manufacturers to do what they need to do and reduce the salt and refined sugar in their processed foods.
Hopefully the children will bring them to heel “kicking and screaming”