Growing obesity crisis among UK kids

Picture: Terry Haywood

Picture: Terry Haywood

Published Feb 3, 2011

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London - A failure to tackle Britain’s obesity epidemic has led to a growing weight crisis among primary school children.

A quarter are already overweight or obese when they start school at the age of four, a report has revealed.

And by the time they leave primary school at the age of 11, more than one in three will be too fat and at serious risk of long-term health problems.

Despite millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being spent on government initiatives to reduce childhood obesity, the survey of one million youngsters revealed that rates have actually increased over the last few years.

A total of 33.3 percent of children leaving primary school are now classified as “too fat”, compared with 31.7 percent in 2006-7.

Symptoms

Many also have very high blood pressure, cholesterol and insulin levels – symptoms usually associated with patients in their 50s and 60s.

Doctors have warned that they are seeing teenagers as young as 15 with early signs of heart disease caused by high-fat diets and a lack of exercise.

Experts say the obesity figures prove initiatives to promote healthy school meals and physical education have failed.

The government’s much-heralded Change4Life drive to encourage children to have better diets and take more exercise has cost £75million in the last two years alone.

Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said: “Government assurances last year that childhood obesity levels were levelling off have been found to be sadly wanting.

“The Department of Health should be ashamed that a quarter of our children arrive at primary school overweight or obese. Until its policies allow all four-year-olds to arrive at school with a healthy weight, obesity rates will continue to spiral.”

The figures show that weight problems are more prominent among young boys than girls. Up to 20.4 percent of 11-year-old boys leaving primary school are obese, compared with 18.7 percent of girls.

Rates of childhood obesity were also found to vary across the country. In the south west, the figure was 16.1 percent for those in the last year of primary school, but in London it rose to 21.8 percent. The figures were collected from the National Child Measurement Programme, in which children are weighed once when they start primary school aged four, and again when they leave at 11.

But as parents can refuse to let their children take part, there are fears that the very heaviest youngsters may not have been counted.

If a child is found to be overweight or obese, the family is sent a letter from the NHS warning them of serious health implications.

Michael Nelson of the School Food Trust, the government organisation which promotes healthy eating in schools, said: “the majority of children in England are still taking packed lunches to school which are typically higher in energy, fat, sugar and salt than school food.

“Switching to school lunches would help many children to improve their diet and energy balance.” – Daily Mail

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