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 Obesity is
now a global epidemic, affecting more people worldwide than
malnutrition – and researchers at the University of Exeter in
the South West of England believe that it's an epidemic caused by
inactivity.
Over the last 15 years scientists at the University have studied
activity levels in over a thousand children. They found that
repeated health warnings have had little or no effect. Children
today still aren't taking enough exercise to combat obesity.
Despite fears about junk food diets, most children aren't taking
on more calories than they used to. They just aren't doing enough
to burn off those calories, as television watching and computer
games take the place of sports and active play. Surveys held in the
US show that, between 1980 and 1994, obesity trebled in adolescents
and doubled in children.
Children who start life obese are statistically far more likely
to become obese adults, falling victim to a range of diseases
including coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and, as
researchers at the nearby University of Bristol have established,
the increasing threat of diabetes.
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