UK Children Shorter, Fatter & Sicker Amid Poor Diet, Food Insecurity, Poverty - Report

Food Foundation: height of 5-year olds falling, child obesity up by a third and type 2 diabetes by a fifth, The Guardian, June 19, 24. Ed. 🎢
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Children across the UK are getting shorter, fatter and sicker amid an epidemic of poor diets, food insecurity and poverty, according to a report warning that millions are facing a “timebomb” of avoidable health conditions.

The average height of five-year-olds is falling, obesity levels have increased by almost a third and the number of young people being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has risen by more than a fifth, the report by the Food Foundation said. Aggressive marketing of cheap ultra-processed food, diets lacking essential nutrition and high levels of poverty and deprivation are driving the “significant decline” in children’s health, researchers found.

Failure to reverse the alarming trajectory will result in a generation burdened throughout their lives by diet-related illnesses and the mental health impact of living with disease – followed by an early death, the report concluded.

Health experts, politicians and food campaigners warned that without immediate action to reverse the damage, the crisis would overwhelm the NHS and weaken the economy for decades with much of the population too sick to work...
https://theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/19/uk-children-shorter-fatter-and-sicker-amid-poor-diet-and-poverty-report-finds