The percentage of overweight children in the United States is growing at an alarming rate. On the whole, kids are spending less time exercising and more time in front of the TV, computer, or video-game console. And today's busy families have fewer free moments to prepare nutritious, home-cooked meals, day in and day out. From fast food to electronics, quick and easy seems to be the mindset of many people, young and old, in the new millennium.
Since the 1970s, the percentage of overweight kids and adolescents in the United States has more than doubled. Today, 10% of 2- to 5-year-olds and more than 15% of children between the ages of 6 and 19 are overweight. If you combine the percent of kids who are overweight with the percent of kids who are at risk of becoming overweight, about one out of three children are affected.
Preventing your children from becoming overweight means adapting the way you and your family eat and exercise and the way you spend time together. Helping your children lead healthy lifestyles begins with you, the parent, and leading by example.
And this is something about the british children specially
The number of overweight schoolchildren in the UK is almost two million, of which about 700,000 are obese, according to a study carried out by the International Obesity Taskforce. Over 25% of girls and 20% of boys are overweight.
The number of UK schoolchildren who have high blood pressure and cholesterol levels has reached 160,000.
British children are eating more and more of the wrong foods and doing less and less exercise.
The number of hours children spend either watching TV or sitting in front of some kind of screen at home has increased.
You can read about this study in the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity.
According to the report, there are already over 4,000 British children with Type 2 Diabetes symptoms. 58,000 have bad glucose tolerance.
As children are not generally screened for blood pressure or indications of Diabetes Type 2 symptoms, it is hard to say exactly how many children are currently at risk. When these children become young adults and start to go to their doctors with complaints, perhaps the full extent of the problem will be known.
Health professionals throughout Britain are calling on authorities to ban the advertising of junk foods targeted at children.
, its the parents fault!!!, and the kids, after age 8 they should be smart enough to understand, unless their retarted, i disagree, its the kids fault, what do you think??, unless the parents engourage it!!!, look!!, if a kid begs and cries and embaresses them constantly, they usualy give him his big mac 
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