Government ‘must face up to obesity timebomb’

THE problem of childhood obesity is a “timebomb” that has yet to be faced up to, the Minister for Children has warned.

Frances Fitzgerald said the Government needs to move away from the provision of treating illness to promoting health and preventing the onset and progression of obesity among three-year-olds.

Ms Fitzgerald was responding to the preliminary findings of research from a Government-funded national study of children, Growing Up In Ireland, which found that 25% of three-year-olds are overweight or obese.