A frightening statistic released by the NHS Information Office reveals that one in three children leaving primary school is considered obese. This is a terrifying statistic considering the work that has gone into the fight against obesity over the last ten years. The National Measurement Programme showed a surge in the number of 10 and 11 year olds who are overweight.
Measurements were taken from over 1 million children and shows that they are getting fatter rather than healthier. In 2006 31% of children between the ages of 10 and 11 were overweight or considered obese but now 33.4% of children are considered unhealthily overweight and boys are considered the more overweight of the two sexes.
The figures also show that the majority of children were not overweight before they started school, a revealing fact. In fact, this number has decreased. There are fewer children starting school obese so something is going right but what is going wrong?
The statistics revealed that the more deprived the areas, the more overweight the children. At the end of the day, it is up to parents to ensure that their children are eating nutritious food. If the schools are serving inappropriate food then the parents should be taking that up with the schools.