- A grossly overweight three-year-old child died from heart
failure in hospital, a damning report on the scale of the country's obesity
epidemic says today.
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- The Commons report issues a warning that obese children
as young as eight are being diagnosed with adult onset diabetes. Others
suffer serious sleep disorders because they are "choking on their
own fat" at night.
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- The Government and the National Health Service are severely
criticised for failing to tackle the crisis, while the food industry is
condemned for cynically promoting junk food to children as young as three.
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- A voluntary ban on junk food advertisements during children's
television programmes and a simple system of traffic light health labels
for food are needed, the report says.
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- MPs want children to do a minimum of three hours' physical
education a week in school and be given better cookery lessons to help
reduce their preference for high fat, high salt convenience food. They
also want children's weight to be regularly monitored at school.
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- The long-awaited report paints a bleak picture of the
country's health. Obesity has risen fourfold in 25 years, it says. Three
quarters of adults are overweight, with 22 per cent clinically obese.
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- Obesity has grown faster in England than anywhere else
in Europe, with childhood obesity tripling in 20 years.
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- Among the evidence collected by MPs was an account of
life in a London obesity clinic for children.
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- Dr Sheila McKenzie, a consultant paediatrician at the
Royal London Hospital, said that waiting lists there were 11 months long
and growing.
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- "In the past two years one child at the age of three
has died of heart failure secondary to extreme obesity," she told
the inquiry.
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- Four other children were being treated for apnoea, a
sleep disorder caused when airways are blocked by folds of fat.
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- "In other words, they are being choked by their
fat," she said. "Were we able to study all severely obese children,
I am confident we would identify many more with obstructive sleep apnoea."
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- Dr Tim Barrett, of Birmingham Children's Hospital, said
he had seen a super-obese child aged eight with type 2 adult onset diabetes.
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- The report says that obesity costs the health service
£7.4 billion a year in treatment for heart disease, diabetes - which
can cause blindness and the loss of limbs, kidney failure, brittle bone
disease, tumours and psychological damage. Obesity is now the second biggest
avoidable cause of cancer after smoking.
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- The report says: "Should the gloomier scenarios
relating to obesity turn out to be true, the sight of amputees will become
much more familiar in the streets.
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- "There will be many more blind people. There will
be huge demand for kidney dialysis. The positive trends of recent decades
in combating heart disease, partly the consequence of the decline in smoking,
will be reversed.
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- "Indeed, this will be the first generation in which
children die before their parents as a consequence of obesity."
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- David Hinchliffe, the chairman of the Commons health
committee, said the report was an urgent warning to the Government.
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- "The devastating consequences of the epidemic of
obesity are likely to have a profound impact over the next century."
he said.
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- "Obesity will soon supersede tobacco as the greatest
cause of premature death. It is staggering to realise that, on present
trends, half of all children in England in 2020 could be obese."
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- John Reid, the Health Secretary, defended the Government's
record in the fight against obesity.
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- "We share the committee's concern about the seriousness
of obesity," he said. "It is one of the key issues which will
be addressed in our White Paper on public health this year.
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- "We recognise that these issues are not just a matter
for government; they involve individuals and the choices they make, as
well as the food and leisure industry."
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- The Department of Health was working closely with other
departments to encourage people to eat more nutritious food and take more
exercise, he said.
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- The food and drink industry also defended itself against
criticism in the report.
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- Martin Paterson, the deputy director general of the Food
and Drink Federation, said: "The entire food and drink chain, from
farmers to caterers, is clear that our industry must be a part of the solution.
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- "However, the obesity problem is complex and multi-faceted;
there are no quick fixes.
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- "Any action taken must be based on sound science
and we need Government, industry and all stakeholders to work together
with a commitment to achieving real results over the long term."
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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