- HELSINKI (Reuters) - Children
are piling on fat at an alarming rate and drastic measures are needed to
ensure they do not suffer serious health consequences as adults, doctors
warned on Saturday.
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- Changes in diets and a decrease in physical activity
have contributed to the growing number of overweight children. Type 2 diabetes,
a disease of middle age, is being detected in some.
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- "We have seen in every country in Europe a dramatic
rise in childhood obesity rates from about five or 10 percent in the late
1980s up to typically 20 percent in the late 1990s," Dr Tim Lobstein,
of the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF), said in an interview.
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- "When ministers of health realize what a time bomb
they are sitting on they will have to do something about this."
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- Lobstein described it as a dramatic public health problem
that will not be solved by a few lessons at school about eating less fat
or an extra 20 minutes exercise at lunchtime.
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- The World Health Organisation estimates there are 17.6
million overweight children under five. In the United States the number
of overweight children has doubled and the number of overweight adolescents
has trebled since 1980, according to the US Surgeon General.
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- In Europe, there is a north-south divide.
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- "In Greece, in the Greek islands and Italy and Spain
it is much higher than in Scandinavian countries and central Europe is
in between," Professor Denes Molnar, of the University of Pecs in
Hungary, told the 12th European Congress on Obesity.
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- An estimated 40-85 percent of obese adolescents will
stay obese as adults and have an increased risk of suffering from diabetes,
heart disease, stroke, muscle and respiratory problems, certain types of
cancer and a premature death.
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- Many overweight and obese youngsters already suffer psychological
and social problems. Some are showing early signs of the physical ailments
associated with adult obesity.
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- "Nine percent of obese children already have metabolic
syndrome," said Molnar referring to high blood pressure, a large waist
circumference, abnormal cholesterol levels and signs of pre-diabetes, which
are risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
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- The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in obese children in
Poland is nearly four percent. In Hungary it is two percent, 1.6 percent
in Germany and less in Italy and France, said Molnar.
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