Childhood obesity ‘ticking time bomb’ in thought-provoking photos

If we stuff our children with fast food and cans of soda, do they become ticking timebombs of poor health? Ready to explode at any moment into fully-fledged type two diabetes?

Those are the questions posed by photographer Warwick Thornton who has created some arresting images of children wearing ‘suicide bomber’ jackets full of junk food for an exhibition.

The pictures come as a recent study shows children as young as eight can worry about their body image and experience dissatisfaction with their bodies, putting them at risk of developing eating disorders as they enter their teens.

The research, which followed 6,000 kids up to the age of 14, also found that while girls can develop eating disorders whether or not they are overweight, only overweight boys were at risk of extreme dieting or binge-eating.

Weight loss expert Dr Eva Orsmond, known for her straight-talking appearances on RTÉ’s Operation Transformation, said while overweight children learn their eating habits from their parents, the Government also has to take responsibility for not educating parents more about nutrition and healthy lifestyles.

“We should put more effort in this country on public health prevention. Because, the thing is, prevention is better than cure. At the moment we’re just putting out fires, we’re not really looking long term,” she said, speaking to Brendan O’Connor on RTÉ Radio One.

“From the moment a child is born the parents should be guided more. It’s parents who decide what’s eaten in the house.”

The Finnish doctor explained the vast majority of children who carry excess fat will continue to be either overweight or obese as they enter adulthood. They also run the risk of contracting type two diabetes.

“We shouldn’t get to the point that children need to be put on these dramatic diets but if they have excess amount of weight, goodness me, it’s a life-threatening condition and it should be addressed as such,” she said.

“Typically one of the parents of the obese child is obese themselves. Children copy their parents. But really, you shouldn’t put the child on a diet you should put the family on a diet.”

While it can be a sensitive topic to approach, Dr Eva said being straightforward with an overweight child is the best approach and explained how she dealt with her own son when he began to gain weight.

“Evan, who’s now 17, he always had tendency to put on weight and he had a little bit, sort of a round tummy at some stage. And I always gave him less food, I didn’t offer him seconds, and he said to me often ‘Why you always ask Christopher if he wants more food?’ I said ‘Evan, because you have a little bit of a tummy there, we need to watch it’. And that’s the way I brought him up,” she explained.

“We know how difficult it is to lose weight, so isn’t it better that we don’t wait when the child has 5 or 6 stone of excess weight?”