Obesity can't be ignored

On Friday 24^th February 2012, The Metro newspaper published an article about the rising numbers if hospital admissions due to obesity. The statistics they quote are scary:

‘The number of weight-loss stomach operations has risen 12 per cent in one year as fatter people try to reverse the rising tide of obesity.
There were 8,087 operations in England’s hospitals in 2010/11, up from 7,214 the previous year, according to NHS data.’
The Metro 24/02/2012

Even if you don’t believe in climate change, and you think that the way we eat does not have an impact on the planet we live on, you cannot deny that obesity is a problem in the western world. Every week in the UK there are numerous documentaries on television about people who are literally eating themselves to death. Although it’s commendable that these documentaries are getting the message out to the wider world, it’s sadly ironic that they do it via one of the sources of obesity, the television. We live in a world where technology is so advanced that we don’t even have to leave the sofa.

One in four people in the UK are now classed as obese. What is even scarier is that in the child population, the figure is three in ten. We are teaching our children how to live unhealthy lives and become overweight. Only 25% of the population eat the recommended 5-a-day of fruit and vegetables, which by the way is supposed to be a recommended minimum. What shocked me the most in the data was that 20% of people said they walk less than 20 minutes a year. I can’t even comprehend how that can be possible.

I’m reminded of when I worked with children about ten years ago. Serving dinner to a group of young boys one night, I asked them if they wanted carrots and one of the boys asked me what a carrot was. I was stunned that a child could not recognise what is a very common vegetable in the UK. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. The boy tried the carrots and liked them so much that the next night he asked for just a plate of carrots. Unfortunately, though, there are a lot of children out there who do not get the right advice.

So, what’s the answer? A good start is to watch those documentaries on TV, as long as you make sure you get up off the sofa and take their advice afterwards.