Where one child in six is obese before they start school

This was a shocking article in the Daily Mail, by David Derbyshire, about childhood obesity. Overall, 1 child in 10 is obese by the age of 5, while 1 in 5 is obese when they start secondary school. The regional differences are even more striking: In Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, 1 in 6 is obese when they start school. In Adur, West Suzzex, it is ‘only’ 1 in 25.

The evidence that an overweight child becomes an overweight adult is overwhelming. The added pressures for children who are overweight, or obese, are also important to take into consideration. Children are regularly teased, even bullied, about their weight and parents who don’t see ‘puppy fat’ for what it really is are not doing their children any favours.

The best way to get children back to a normal weight (better still – to not let them get overweight in the first place) is to only have real food in the house. No biscuits, cakes, sweets, crisps etc – just don’t have them in the house. No one else in the house needs these things either. Have plenty of meat, fish, eggs, dairy, fruit, veg and salad at meals (all mixed up in things like ‘spag-bol’ – whatever it takes) and try to fill them up on real food.

If your children are pre-solid food age now, don’t even start them on sugary foods or cereals. Watch out for the baby food also – some food manufacturers are quite simply irresponsible – The Children’s Food campaign recently exposed that Farley’s Rusks contained more sugar per gram than McVities Chocolate Digestives. What better way than to give humans an unnaturally sweet tooth than when they are babies! This is a disgusting way to treat the health of our next generation.

It is difficult to get children off sweet and processed food, so try to avoid starting in the first place.