Recycling Fat Children
WITH the papers’ daily hunt for fat children failing to throw up a new name to gawp at, the Mail instead looks at the thin.
“Anorexic at the age of 6,” says the headline. No name is given. There is no picture of a stick-thin girl sat in front of no food.
What we get is news that at any time as many as 90,000 Britons are being treated for eating disorders. We’re told of a survey by something called the British Paediatric Surveillance unit. It has found “many cases” of eating disorders in pre-adolescents.
Can these thin children work with the fat children to produce a happy medium, a Jack Sprat approach to food diet?
The Mail fears it may already be too late. “Teenagers today are first in history to be less healthy than their parents,” says the headline.
A Dr Russell Vine has contributed to a report. He talks of a four-fold rise in adolescent obesity in the past 20 years.
Fat then thin. Boom and bust. What to do?
The Mail knows. “Return of the cycle test,” it cheers. Enough of this sedentary lifestyle, kids, it’s time to get on your bikes.
So all hail the Bikeability test, backed by £10million of Government funding. But first more research. Under the auspices of Cycle England, Bikeability will reverse the trend that has seen a 50 per cent decline in cycling over the past 20 years.
Yes, 20 years. That’s the same period over which obesity has quadrupled. Might it be the cycling can make us all fit and well again?
Philip Darnton, chairman of Cycle England, says: “Our ambition is that, within five years, no child should leave primary school without the chance to receive Bikeability training.”
Hurrah!
Children will be taken to minor roads to practise stopping and turning. They will negotiate cones in the playground. They will go on the road and learn not to turn left at the same time as large vehicles.
They will learn that hitting the pavement or tarmac hurts. Unless you’re fat…
Posted: 27th, March 2007 | In: Tabloids Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
