"If changes aren't made, there is no doubt in my mind that this generation of children will not live as long as their parents," warned Dr Tom Black in Tuesday's 'Journal'.
It’s scary to think that mothers and fathers of 75 or 80 years of age would have to attend the funeral of their son or daughter due to anything other than tragic accidents or illness. To think that teenagers today could pass start dying off in their 40s and 50s because of a culture of take-aways and inactivity is a sobering thought.It’s a parents worst nightmare to bury a child but that appears to be increasingly likely given the (literal) shape of some children.Dr Black’s concern is a shocking conclusion to reach in a developed country. A significant fall in the average age of mortality is something one would think may happen in the poorest areas of the world. Areas in which there is no clean drinking water, a lack of information regarding health and hygiene, and a shortage of medicine; countries in which AIDs and malaria are rife.But here? In Derry?It’s not through a lack of education on the matter - it’s sheer laziness. We all know that we should eat 4-5 pieces of fruit and veg a day; take some exercise a few times a week and limit our amount of fry-ups, take aways, pizzas and beer. So, to say in 30 or 40 years - “We didn’t know, nobody told us”, will be a hollow and desperate call.A couple of generations ago people had to go to the well to
fetch water, they had to walk miles to school and there was no such thing as ‘ready-meals’ so all breakfasts, lunches and dinners were prepared from scratch. I’m not suggesting that I would have prepared to live back then, but at least people were kept busy.If I was born 50 or a hundred years earlier I would have had no problem getting the day in. Since then, everything has been created to save time - things happen a lot quicker, be that post (e-mail), walks to school (bus), preparing meals (phoning the takeaway).I’d guess we have saved 5 or 6 hours a day through invention and modernisation. I’m all for that, but it’s a shame that this ‘extra time’ - to go for walks, runs or swims; to play or read with children - is being spent with bums planted firmly on sofas.Watching television is literally the laziest thing you can do: "When adults watch TV they are virtually motionless.
Research has shown that your heart rate, blood pressure and metabolic rate decline, resulting in burning 20 to 30 calories less per hour," said Tom Farley, M.D., chair of the department of community health sciences at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in America.It’s a poor example to set the kids.Studies have shown that excessive TV watching is linked to difficulty in sleeping, behavioural problems and increased obesity in children.Research by Harvard university suggests a link between the amount children eat and the amount of television they watch.Jean Wiecha, one of the report's authors, says: "The perception is that children watching television only gain weight because they are sitting and snacking in front of the screen and doing less physical activity. However, when we compared the children's daily calorie intake at the end of the study with what they were consuming at the start, the majority of the increase in calories was explained by them eating more of the snack foods they had seen advertised."In short - kids sitting watching ads for sweets all day will want to eat those sweets while watching tv the next day.A useful idea would be to check the TV guide and figure out at the start of the week the things you simply HAVE to watch. I found, when I did that, that the ‘must-see’ TV was actually pret
ty limited.If in a slob-like state I’ll watch as many repeats of FRIENDs as are on - and could quite easily while away an hour watching Dr Quinn:Medicine Woman - would any of these fall into a must see category? It’s doubtful.Children in Britain and Ireland will average nearly 13years of their lives watching TV. That freaked me out a bit when I heard, what a waste of life!Dr Black has said that Derry is sitting on an obesity timebomb with soaring rates of diabetes, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, blood pressure and heart problems.He said: “We are seeing a number of teenagers aged between 16 and 18 who weigh in excess of 17stone. “It is ridiculous that people - teenagers - are ordering takeaways each evening. The simple fact is that if you don’t use up the calories you consume, you will become obese.”Well, it’s probably time to get of your arse and do something about it.
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