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| Couch
potato…more kids are living on fast food diets |
Children are getting so fat they may be the
first generation to die before their parents, an expert claimed
yesterday.
Today's youngsters are already falling prey to potential killers
such as diabetes because of their weight.
Fatty fast-food diets combined with sedentary lifestyles dominated
by televisions and computers could mean kids will die tragically
young, says Professor Andrew Prentice, from the London School
of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
At the the same time, the shape of the human body is going through
a huge evolutionary shift because adults are getting so fat.
Here in Britain, latest research shows that the average waist
size for a man is 36-38in and may be 42-44in by 2032. This compares
with only 32.6in in 1972.
Women's waists have grown from an average of 22in in 1920 to
24 ins in the Fifties and 30in now.
One of the major reasons why children now are at greater risk
is that we are getting fatter younger.
In the UK alone, more than one million under-16s are classed
as overweight or obese - double the number in the mid-Eighties.
One in ten four-year-olds are also medically classified as obese.
The obesity pandemic - an extensive epidemic - which started
in the US, has now spread to Europe, Australasia, Central America
and the Middle East.
Many nations now record more than 20 per cent of their population
as clinically obese and well over half the population as overweight.
Prof Prentice said the change in our shape has been caused by
a glut of easily available high-energy foods combined with a dramatic
drop in the energy we use as a result of technology developments.
He is not alone in his concern. Only last week one medical journal
revealed how obesity was fuelling a rise in cancer cases.
Obesity also increases the risk factor for strokes and heart
disease as well as a diabetes.
An averagely obese person's lifespan is shortened by around nine
years while a severely obese person by many more.
Prof Prentice said: "So will parents outlive their children,
as claimed recently by an American obesity specialist?
"The answer is yes - and no. Yes, when the offspring become
grossly obese. This is now becoming an alarmingly common occurrence
in the US.
"Such children and adolescents have a greatly reduced quality
of life in terms of both their physical and psychosocial health."
So say No to that doughnut and burger .
(Agenices)
Updated: 2002-09-16 01:00
最新的研究表明，1972年，英國男性的平均腰圍僅為32.6英寸，目前是36-38英寸，到2032年，可能達(dá)到42-44英寸。