HEALTH data from a variety of sources reveal that almost half of our adults, about a quarter of adolescents and nearly a third of primary schoolchildren are either overweight or obese.
Such a situation calls for immediate action as it will have catastrophic consequences on our children and young people, and inflict a heavy burden on our country.
Many social and environmental factors have negatively influenced the physical activity and eating behaviour of our children, leading to the obesity problem.
Children spend a lot of time in front of electronic screens, be it their computer or TV.
Parents may prefer this than to expose their children to the vagaries of the outdoors.
With growing urbanisation — nearly 70 per cent of our population is urban — there are fewer open spaces, playgrounds and parks for children and adults to participate in physical activities.
Fast-food outlets are everywhere, even in rural localities, attracting children and adults to indulge in relatively cheap, convenient and tasty but unhealthy food, with a lot of oil, salt, sugar and a hotchpotch of chemicals that the body finds hard to process.
Iit is not uncommon for canteens to serve unhealthy food as they don’t strictly adhere to the nutritional standards set by the authorities.
Regular physical activities at schools are limited in duration and intensity, compounding the children’s lack of fitness.
Children are at high risk of contracting a myriad of acute and chronic, but preventable, health problems, such as Type 2 diabetes, cancer, high cholesterol, pulmonary diseases, elevated blood pres-
sure and stroke.
Childhood obesity also has serious psychosocial consequences, such as low self-esteem, lower quality of life and depression, that could lead to substance abuse and antisocial or even violent behaviour.
It is known that obese children are more likely to perform poorly at school because of sluggishness and inability to concentrate on their studies.
They will possibly grow up to be less productive adults, which in turn, will have adverse social and economic impact on our nation’s development.
We need a multifaceted approach at national level to address this pervasive problem.
It should involve the home, the school and the community, with parents, teachers, elders and leaders, setting an example themselves and guiding their children in the right direction.
A comprehensive health policy needs to be formulated to provide family education, direct care, media publicity and advocacy to ensure that fast-food advertising does not aggravate the problem of obesity.
The time for a focused multidisciplinary action is now.
Let’s not be the ones who are complacent and fail to take action in the face of a looming disaster facing our children and the generations who will follow them.
Rueben Dudley, Petaling Jaya, Selangor