Children Suffer Middle-Age Health Woes

http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.p...st_item&id=889

"Children Suffer Middle-Age Health Woes", KFMB, California, June 2,
2005,
Link: http://www.kfmb.com/stories/story.14037.html

About half a million children in Europe are suffering classic
middle-aged health problems because they are too fat, according to new
estimates released Wednesday.

Obesity among European children has been on the rise over the last 15
years, but experts are now starting to see the health consequences
emerge on a large scale.

In a new analysis presented Wednesday at the start of the European
Congress on Obesity, experts reported that the combination of dangerous
conditions called "metabolic syndrome" high blood pressure, raised
cholesterol and poor blood sugar regulation are increasingly being seen
alongside childhood obesity.

"The figures suggest that children in the EU could soon be measuring up
to their counterparts in the United States, where the numbers affected
by the metabolic syndrome doubled from 910,000 to 2 million in less
than 10 years," said the analysis by the International Obesity Task
Force, a network of eminent obesity scientists and policy experts.

The group estimated that between 2,000 and 10,000 European children
already have the type of diabetes that is usually diagnosed in
middle-aged adults.

Markos Kyprianou, European Union commissioner for health and consumer
protection, outlined plans for a code of conduct to rein in the
marketing of unhealthy food to children and broader policy initiatives
for agriculture, education and transportation that address the obesity
problem.

The European Union will publish a new strategy on diet and exercise
before the end of the year and will submit the document to public
consultation with the food industry, anti-obesity activists and others
to shape a final plan by the end of 2006, Kyprianou said.

The move echoes unprecedented steps taken last year by the World Health
Organization, which launched a global strategy on diet and physical
activity after health ministers from around the world approved the
plan.

The proportion of children in Europe who were overweight did not change
much from 1974-84. The rate started to creep up during the next 10
years, then exploded after 1995, according to figures from the obesity
task force.

In Britain, one in five children are overweight or obese, in Spain the
figure rises to 30 percent, and in Italy, 36 percent. In the United
States, roughly 30 percent of American children are overweight or
obese, according to recent studies.

The European statistics on metabolic syndrome in children are based on
a conservative estimate of obesity rates in Europe, compared with rates
in the United States. The U.S. figures on obesity and metabolic
syndrome were then matched in the same proportion to the European
numbers to come up with a metabolic syndrome estimate for European
children.

"We think we probably underestimated the dimension of the issue," James
said. "We are often accused of exaggerating the estimates, but whenever
we do get the actual figures, they turn out to be worse than we
expected," said Dr. Philip James, chairman of the obesity task force.

"This is more than just a warning signal it is the red light: We need
to call a stop to the continuing pressures on children to eat too much
and have so little active play," James said. "We can no longer afford
to delay the introduction of strong prevention strategies throughout
Europe."