GOOD news. In many rich nations, the recent rise in overweight and obese children has levelled off (see “Childhood obesity levels stabilising around the world”).
We don’t yet know whether this stabilisation indicates a turning point or is merely a plateau before children become fatter still, because there is no clear explanation for it.
Some claim that campaign messages to eat less junk and to exercise more are getting through. Cynics, or those who dislike nannyism, may say we have reached a calorific “saturation point” and that kids can barely get any bigger – although there are good reasons to think otherwise. Or perhaps it’s a transgenerational effect, and the steadying waistlines reflect restraint among parents, or even grandparents.
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Whatever the explanation, the levelling off is welcome. Yet it still leaves more overweight people than in recorded history. In the US and Italy, for example, a third of children are overweight or obese, and obesity is rising in China and India.
The ultimate challenge, of course, is to reverse the trend. Unexpectedly, there is now some hope that this is possible.
