According to a new survey, one quarter of English children are obese. The study, carried out by the Health and Social Care Information Centre looked at the height, weight and ages of 2,000 children.
In 1995 15% of 11-15 year-old boys were obese, in 2004 the number jumped to 24%. During the same period the percentage of obese girls rose from 15% to 25%. If current indications are correct, the figure today, two years after 2004, must be even higher.
The UK government has set itself a target of stopping the rise in child obesity by the end of this decade. Many say it is not much of a target if by 2010 the numbers double again and over 50% of English children are obese.
In response to public concern that the government is not really doing enough to confront the ever growing childhood obesity problem, Public Health Minister, Caroline Flint, said “We recognise we need to do more. Our public health agenda is the first concerted attempt to seriously tackle rising levels of obesity.”
Obesity among adults continues to grow in England. 24% of English men and women are obese today (men and women now have nearly the same obesity rates in England). Of great concern is that 11-15 year-old boys and girls are starting to overtake the adult rates of obesity. How heavy are these children going to be when they are young, middle-aged and elderly adults?
As English children enter adulthood the number of people with diabetes (type II) is set to explode. A much larger proportion of the adult population will be facing serious cardiovascular disease. Incidences of cancer will rise. These are all possible consequences of having more obese adults. Further down the road, if the obesity problem is not addressed long-term, life expectancy will probably go down significantly when these children reach their sixties and seventies.
Is it the food, lack of exercise, something else or a combination of factors? People in England consume fewer calories per day today than fifty years ago. But people were much thinner then. People were much more physically active 50 years ago. Junk food was not so common. Fizzy drinks laden with sugar were not so regularly consumed. Perhaps several different factors have to be addressed if the problem is ever to be successfully dealt with.
Evidence is definitely becoming more compelling that lack of physical activity correlates more closely with rising rates of obesity than diet does.
The fastest rise in obesity rates have taken place during the last seven years. The last seven years have seen the fastest drop in the amount of physical activity people do. This is despite seven full years of such diets as The Zone, Atkins and the South Beach. These low-carb diets, when followed correctly, do lead to weight loss. Doctors around the world have written to Medical News Today explaining that the problem is compliance (patients not sticking to instructions). The number of people on low-carb diets who abandon the diet within five years is very high.
The change in the seventies to low fat, high-carb diets did not result in an obesity explosion comparable to the one that has been taking place over the last 7 years. During the last seven years English people have become quite knowledgeable about the advantages of low carbs for weigh control.
During the eighties British state schools started selling off hundreds of thousands of acres of playing fields to local councils for land development. This continued during the nineties and still continues today. If state schools have fewer playing fields, children must logically be doing less exercise at school.
English children have been getting fatter ever since state schools started selling off playing fields.
Fifty years ago a much higher percentage of children went to school by bicycle. In most parts of England today it is just too dangerous to cycle to school – the amount of vehicle traffic is so much greater now. More children 50 years ago used to walk to and from school.
Another factor to consider is what more and more children do today in their free time. Today there are computer games, DVDs and mobile phones. All activities which require no physical exertion at all. Rather than go round and see my friend, play some game outside, I send text messages, play video games and listen to music.
A physical education teacher in South London made the following observation:
(Name withheld)
?I am in charge of physical education in a school in South London with more than 1,500 children. I have studied the diets of children who are members of our sports teams – swimming, football, hockey, cross-country running and tennis. They train three times a week. I have compared their diets to the diets of children who rarely do any sports. The difference is tiny. However, the ?sporty’ kids are much nearer their ideal weights than children who do hardly any sports.?
Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today