Urban children growing obese
As per a survey published by the ICDDR,B 14 percent of urban children are overweight and a further 4 percent are obese. The survey on 'Obesity prevalence and adolescence in urban areas in Bangladesh' covered seven city corporations and the results are anything but comforting. Given the less than active life today's children experience in the concrete jungles that our cities have become, it is not altogether surprising to find obesity on the rise. What is surprising is that the quality of food intake by children between the ages of 5 and 18 years is anything but nutritious. The culture of fast food making inroads into regular diets of children; the lack of proper supervision by parents on what their children are eating combine to give rise to a very unhealthy situation.
Children's diets include items that are rich in sugar along with deep-fried foods like burgers and fried chicken. Health practitioners and nutritionists are equally concerned on the long term health implications this new trend represents. It is imperative that authorities take into account the huge expenditure that is bound to be incurred if we ignore the need for urban children to lead a more physically active life -- one that is however not possible today due to the lack of open public places. For policymakers, the chief concern is that entire generations of children are growing up consuming very unhealthy foods. This will lead to various illnesses associated with obesity, which in turn will have major ramifications for public healthcare in the near future.
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