Fat kids

There was a bit of discussion on the radio this morning debating the "good news" that kids are not getting as fat as we thought they were.

Child obesity is levelling off - reports the BBC

Maybe they are drinking more full fat milk?

The thing is though that there is still a big problem, especially for kids from poorer families. A study I saw today concluded:

Childhood obesity and overweight prevalence among school-age children in England has stabilized in recent years, but children from lower socio-economic strata have not benefited from this trend. There is an urgent need to reduce socio-economic disparities in childhood overweight and obesity.

The Guardian had a good piece too:

If the calculations are correct, it is suggested that "only" about 30% of youngsters will be overweight or obese – and remarkably the government's revised target of reducing the scale of the problem to year 2000 levels by 2020 might well be achieved. That assumes no improvement in the situation over the next decade and still leaves obesity among young children at twice the level it was in 1990 – the baseline for all the calculations.