I recently read somewhere that the Fast Food market will double in sales volume by 2029. And now, there is another new study warning that one in every three kids on Earth will be overweight or obese by 2050!
One in devery three kids – everywhere – by 2050 if we don’t act NOW!
It doesn’t seem to matter how bad – how apocalyptic – the predictions are. People just ignore them and plough ahead, eating poorly and setting themselves up for disastrous future health outcomes..
Why?
Now, it’s Doom’s Day for the kids… And this in the shadow of other more studies warning that over-weight and obese kids who grow up into fat and unhealthy adults don’t live as long or as happily as their thinner cousins. And cost global health care systems hundreds of billions off dollars a year in potentially-avoidable treatment costs.
Numbers don’t lie…
According to a new study, led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) (Australia) and pub-lished in The Lancet, found a third of children and adolescents will be overweight (385 million) or obese (360 million) within the next 25 years. The forecast equates to 356 million children aged 5-14 years and 390 million aged 15-24 years with one in six facing obesity.
What’s worse than that is, the figures have already been accelerating since the millennium. With further significant increases predicted within the next five years, in particular.
However, the researchers stress urgent action now could turn the tide on the public health crisis.
‘Action this day!’
Winston Churchill was infamous for lighting fires under his key people during the Second World War, by writing boldly on his memos to them that he expected ‘Action this day!’ And they knew he meant it.
Researchers stress that action now could head off ‘giant burden’ everyone alive in the future will have to bear some part of. MCRI Dr. Jessica Kerr says, “if immediate five-year action plans [are] not developed, the future [will be] bleak for our youth.” Everyone’s youth’s health. Everywhere.
“Children and adolescents remain a vulnerable population within the obesity epidemic,” Kerr said. Prevention is key as obesity rarely resolves after adolescence.
“This giant burden will not only cost the health system and the economy billions, but complications associated with a high Body Mass Index (BMI), including diabetes, cancer, heart problems, breathing issues, fertility problems and mental health challenge, will negatively impact our children and ado-lescents now and into the future, even holding the potential to impact our grandchildren’s risk of obesity and quality of life for decades to come,” Kerr warns.
The takeaway
But the odds are against humanity, Ker says. “While people and families can work to balance their physical activity, diet and sleep, everything in our environments works to counteract these efforts,” she says.
And grassroots action alone will not be enough to make a positive difference in the gloomy situation.
“Given [the] huge global shift in children’s and adolescents’ weight, we can no longer keep blaming people for their choices. We require governments to step up by addressing regulatory interventions including taxing sugar sweetened beverages, banning junk food advertising aimed at children and young people and funding healthy meals in primary and secondary schools,” Kerr concludes.
“We also need to consider the benefits of wider policies such as overhauling urban planning to encourage active lifestyles.”
My take
Kerr is right. Once again, humanity is up against itself. Our built-in addictive tendency to crave the bad stuff, in combination with an addictive drive to get it, are just too strong for our natural defenses to cope with.
Simply, as my my folk’s generation used to put it, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”
As a society, we’ve counted on the Fast Food and processed food industries to voluntarily step in and protect us from ourselves. But there’s nothing in that for them. And there’s nothing forcing them to comply with repeated ‘polite requests’. So, naturally, they’ve done nothing substantial to address that goal.
It’s becoming clearer by the day that governments at all levels must act now to avoid an obesity apocalypse. And one is coming sooner than most of us think!
We’re running out of time to avert disaster. What we need is a latter-day Churchill, who can compel ‘Action this day!’
~ Maggie J.