Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Childhood obesity 'could spiral out of control'

Cape Town - Big retailers which display sweets and chocolates in their check-out aisles and at tills may have to do away with these items or swop them for more healthier options as the government cracks down on childhood obesity.

Joe Maila, spokesperson for Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi, said the department was also having discussions with various government departments, including the Department of Education, to discourage schools from selling unhealthy foods in their tuck shops or advertising these foods on billboards.

“We are so concerned about levels of obesity that if we don’t act now things might spiral out of control.

“In fact, we are not only concerned with obesity, but its end results, which add on the incidence of other non-communicable disease.

“Our children are often the victims of these enticing marketing strategies, and we want to end that,” he said.

Maila was responding to the latest report by the World Health Organisation, which raised the alarm about the rise in childhood obesity.

This week the WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity (Echo) described obesity in children as an “exploding nightmare”, particularly in the developing world.

The commission, which has been assessing obesity levels over the past two years in more than 100 WHO member states, found that the number of children under five years who are overweight or obese had risen to 41 million, from 31 million in 1990.

No comments:

Post a Comment