Obesity crisis - Children set to die before their parents

THERE is no way to mask the enormity of the problem posed by the crisis of obesity, and last year’s Government National Taskforce on Obesity is proving, unfortunately, to have been almost prophetic.

It predicted that this may be the first generation where children will have a lower life expectancy than their parents.

Now dieticians and medical professionals are convinced that if the trend of eating so much junk food, combined with insufficient exercise, is not arrested, young people will, quite bluntly, die before their parents.

It is a frightening and worrying prospect, and is so serious that the incidence of obesity in the country is now being described as being of epidemic proportions.

The problem about obesity, bad enough in itself, is that it can lead to other serious medical conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, problems with arteries, and cancers are also linked to it.

Young people, and their parents, have to change the trend because the fact is that the 2,000 people dying prematurely of obesity every year now, is going to dramatically increase.