Childhood Obesity Condemns Young Australians to a Short, Sick Life. Eat, Drink, Consume, for Soon You Die.
22 million children world-wide are obese.
In the US 16% are overweight. 28% of Uk children are too. In Australia, 1 in four are obese.
Meanwhile, 230,000 students and 46% of NSW secondary schools have gone with a computer tutoring package sponsored by McDonald’s, putting fast food advertising in front of students in their homes and classrooms.
This, while the Australian Society for the Study of Obesity (ASSO) paints a miserable picture of the future for obese children: asthma, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and orthopaedic problems.
It only gets worse with age. Obese adults can look forward to diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, gallbladder disease, ovarian, breast, prostate and renal cancers, not to mention the psychosocial disorders.
Analysis by Tim Gill from the NSW Centre for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Sydney show that in Australia, roughly half of 16- to 18-year-old boys consume nearly a litre of soft drink a day.
Not surprising, since the Australian Schools Canteen Association is contracted to the Coca Cola company- a company that has been known to spend up to $180m on its television advertising.
Compare that to the funding Nicola Roxon recently earmarked for the new National Preventative Health Strategy. The $17.6m funding allocated by the Federal Government is a drop in the ocean compared to the advertising spend.
Yet we see no leadership from our government on the issue of childhood obesity. They should be responding to research like Gill’s and making companies accountable. They should be spreading information on what 1000mls of Coca Cola per day does to the a young person.
They should be investing more time, money and effort in combating an epidemic which will otherwise consign the next generation of Australians to lives of ill-health, sickness and disease.
They certainly should be curtailing the ability of companies like McDonalds to reach into the homes and bedrooms of school children.
I am a Kindergarten Teacher and I run the “Smiles For Miles” and “Kids Go For You Life” programs within my Centre. Both programs work on educating children about healthy choices and at this time of year most of my children can identify healthy and not healthy food items.
But when given the choice between an apple and an unhealthy item with their favourite character on it, health goes out the window. Children watch the tv, see their favourite character and demand their parents buy that item for them.
Our government needs to step in and take control of what is advertised to our children!