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obesity in the young.
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
seems like kids are getting fatter in ever increasing numbers.
it's reckoned a lot of your generation won't live as long my generation. it's becoming a serious national health problem.
the govt are now looking at how they can control advertising of JUNK food aimed at young people.
posession of a burger is still ok but not supply ...
it's reckoned a lot of your generation won't live as long my generation. it's becoming a serious national health problem.
the govt are now looking at how they can control advertising of JUNK food aimed at young people.
posession of a burger is still ok but not supply ...
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Seriously I ain't joking, its all the lazy ass parents fault.
they don't walk to school. they eat crap. they sit on their fat arses all day. fresh air ...forrests ...mountains ...alien to them.
some of them need to get on their bikes ...without seeing it as some kind of punishment.
Physical work is not as big of a factor in todays society as it was, therefore many kids won't get a way to burn the calories.
And there's a limit to what parents can do.
In my old school there wasn't a cantine, so when we in 7th grade got allowed to go out of school grounds during breaks, everyone would run to the bakery, the supermarket or kiosk at the two big breaks everyday fir at least the first half year.
Walkers crisps - Gary Linekar
Pepsi - numerous stars in the past
MacDonalds/Burger King - offering kids toys with meals and advertising it with scary nasty clowns.
Maybe health needs to be promoted more?
Then it's the parents. I don't know about the UK, but here in Iceland most parents work in a full daytime job. Added onto a job, some may be studying something or have something they need to do in the evenings. Many parents seem to be, unfortunately, too busy for their kids, so what do they do? Buy junk food, place them in front of the TV/computer, etc. so they have more time to relax (or work) to prepare for the next day. I can't really say that I blame them, but it does make one wonder why that kind of parents are having kids in the first place.
It is a difficult situation to deal with, and it is impossible to put the blame on the fast food restaurants only. Afterall, they're only supplying what is in demand. Capitalism at its best. :rolleyes:
As for excercise, what's wrong with kids going out to play football or going for a walk in the country? What's wrong with them joining swimming classes or participating in extra-curricular sports instead of sitting in front of their Playstation all day and eating crap?
I used to be a fat kid, I know what it's like and to be bullied for my weight (although I have trouble with sports for medical reasons) and I believe that if things like that were promoted and healthy food was promoted more we wouldn't have so many fat kids.
I like swimming casue it has a nice feeling to it. Can float around, or go hardcore when in the mood, and it relases enormous amounts of excessive energy and agressions. The environment is just really relaxing.
And the only reason that I go to the gym is to strengthen my knee and the muscles around it. It's a plus that I get to relase agression and energy and feel an overall body improvement, plus I can listen to music or watch tv or read at the same time. But I doubt I'd go, if I didn't have the knee as a trigger to do so.
The worst are team sports as you're dependant on others and they're dependant on you.
The simple reason for the rise in obesity is the lack of physical exercise taken by children now. They dont walk to school or home from school, they dont play football in the street or on the rec, they dont ride bikes. But even more worrying than that is how little exercise children have at school now either- in many cases its one hour or less of PE each week, and thats even assuming that the local council hasnt sold the school playing fields to build executive homes on them.
If children exercised to the same level as they did in 1955, but ate the same now, you wouldnt sdee a fat person for love nor money.
School team sports are the worst, because if youre crap at sport then youre put off trying ever again because of the stick you get.
I think kids should rather be encouraged to do some kind of sports by rather using PE in their first years in school to introduce various sports to them (and then do it in an unbiased way so it wouldn't only be footie or whatever it is that is most popular at any given time) and try to make them practice stuff because they are interested in it. That idea is still a bit flawed, I know, but I'm trying to work the kinks out of it.
It's also a shame that kids are starting more and more to choose computer games over playing outdoors.
Considering many kids will have a couple of those or similar bars in a day, plus a bag or two of crisps or some chips from the shop and of course the customary visit to McEvil or Burger King, there are many kids out there would probably have to run 2 marathons a day to burn off all the calories they consume.
It's a wonder they're not even fatter than they are...
There are about 400 calories in a king sized Mars bar, which is a lot but a child would burn off about 800 calories a day just by growing, especially during adolescence.
According to the Food and Drink Federation calorific intake in 1955 was 2641 kcals, but in 2000 it was 1750 kcals. However during the same time calorific usage went down by 800 kcals, meaning that in 2000 people were eating 750 kcals less, but using 800 kcals less.
Proof here (pdf format)
Which tends to indicate that food is only a small issue in this. The nutritional value of products is a worry with processed food, but it is not a cause for obesity- people eating more than they burn off is. Getting children to exercise a bit more would curb the levels of obesity- a sedentary lifestyle iis far more damaging than a Big Mac.