Figures like these do not just indicate an aesthetic problem. If you carry around more weight than you are supposed to, you are more at risk of health problems. Doctors are reporting cases of 11-year-olds with Type 2 diabetes, the kind caused by obesity. Type 2 used to be almost unheard of among children. And last November, the NHS opened its first childhood obesity clinic in Leeds.
But clinics do not address the cause of obesity, and there is no shortage of people willing to point the finger of blame. The food industry has come in for most of the flak for aggressively advertising foods high in sugar, fat and salt to children and teens, on top of a lifestyle dominated by TV-watching and video games. The Food Commission, a lobbying group, last week fired a broadside at David Beckham, Michael Owen and other Premier League footballers for plugging Pepsi, Walkers crisps and McDonald's.
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