2023 Author: Adelina Croftoon | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 12:05
The British are rapidly gaining weight, and from a very young age. This shocking conclusion was drawn from the journalistic investigation of The Sun newspaper.
The journalists visited British hospitals and they were able to collect statistics, according to which over the past five years the number of obesity cases among children and adolescents under the age of 18 has risen sharply.
This number is now twice the previous data and includes over 9 thousand people.
At the same time, the number of children suffering from apnea (holding the breath during sleep) has skyrocketed in Britain, up 87% since 2014/2015. And by 31% there was an increase in children with gallbladder disease. All this also turned out to be associated with excess weight.
Researchers were also frightened by the fact that more and more often children are being diagnosed with diseases that in previous years were diagnosed only in adults. It also turned out that knee cap injuries are very common in overweight children.
The head of the National Health Service of England Simon Stevens bluntly stated that "the youth of the nation are consuming fat and that the figures released are only the tip of the iceberg."
He was echoed by Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum, saying "This is proof that the 'time bomb' of childhood obesity has finally exploded."
Type 2 diabetes is also on the rise among overweight young Britons. And while the country is trying to fight the threat, even by introducing a special tax on sweet soda, this does not seem to solve the problem.
Childhood obesity increases not only due to the absorption of large amounts of sugar and carbohydrates, but also due to a sedentary lifestyle. By 2024, about 40% of children in British elementary schools will be overweight, officials said.
