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【社会人文】没有轻而易举的事（民众委员会力
No child's play
Commons committee urges aggressive action against childhood obesity
Juliet O’Neill, CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, March 27, 2007
OTTAWA — More Canadian children are overweight and for the first time the country's younger generations are expected to live shorter lives than their parents due to obesity, says a new Commons committee report released Tuesday.
Committee MPs said they were "shocked" to learn about the increase in overweight children — from 12% to 18% — and obese children — from 3% to 8% — between 1978 and 2004. That makes about one in four Canadian children overweight or obese.
The report said parents must be in denial as a Canadian Medical Association survey found only 9% report they have a child who is at least somewhat overweight.
Font: ****“For the first time in recorded history, our younger generations are expected to live shorter lives than their parents due to obesity,” committee chairman Rob Merrifield said in a prepared statement. “New and aggressive action is required to address this complex, and ultimately very costly, problem.”
Highlights of recommendations are a ban on trans fats as advised by a federal task force; use of a mandatory, simplified, standardized food labeling system; and designation of federal funds to build or replace aging playgrounds, sidewalks, rinks, pools and other community exercise spots across the country.
The report said most Canadian children spend too much time in front of TV and computer screens; don't get the expert-recommended 90 minutes a day of exercise; eat too much fat and junk food; consume too many sugary drinks and don’t eat the recommended five daily servings of fruit and vegetables.
The committee also reported the "distressing" and "most alarming" number of 55% of First Nations children living on reserves and 41 per cent off reserves are overweight or obese. There is so much poverty among First Nation and Inuit people that many people cannot afford nutritious food, especially in remote northern communities, the report said.
And of more than 500 First Nations schools, only half have a gym.
The health committee proposed Canadians take up a national challenge to halt a 30-year rise in overweight children in just three years — by the 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver. Then targets to reverse the trend could kick in.
"It is ambitious, but it is doable," committee chairman Rob Merrifield, an Alberta Conservative MP, told a news conference.
"For the first time in recorded history, our younger generations are expected to live shorter lives than their parents due to obesity," he said in a prepared statement. "New and aggressive action is required to address this complex, and ultimately very costly, problem."
The report was welcomed by the Heart and Stroke Foundation, which has long warned "fat is the new tobacco," and by the Canadian Medical Association.
Foundation chief Sally Brown said overweight children are on "a fast track" to developing hypertension, heart disease and stroke.
New Democratic Party MP Penny Priddy said by chronicling links between poverty, poor diet and lack of exercise, the report busts a myth that overweight children all sit around playing on computers and watching TV. She cited the example of children in poor families being fed Kraft Dinner instead of going to bed hungry.
Kraft Dinner is a brand of macaroni and cheese, an inexpensive food.
Expressing concern that the committee would get into trouble with the Kraft corporation, Merrifield said "I love Kraft Dinner."
The report said on average, adolescents in Canada spend almost 35 hours a week in front of a TV or computer screen — more time than in the classroom over the course of a year. Studies had shown the less time in front of a screen and the more activity, the less weight.
The committee also postponed a decision on a possible ban on food advertising to children, saying it would assess the impact of self-regulation in Quebec, Sweden and other jurisdictions in a year before deciding on the issue.
Bloc Québécois MPs issued a dissenting report, saying the Quebec government already has a well-defined strategy to deal with juvenile obesity and that the federal government should stick to its own jurisdiction in health, which is confined to First Nations and Inuit people. No child's play
不再儿戏
Commons committee urges aggressive action against childhood obesity
加拿大下议院委员会催促对儿童期肥胖采取积极措施
Juliet O’Neill, CanWest News Service
作者：加西新闻社 Juliet O’Neill
Published: Tuesday, March 27, 2007
发表日期：2007年3月27日，星期二
OTTAWA — More Canadian children are overweight and for the first time the country's younger generations are expected to live shorter lives than their parents due to obesity, says a new Commons committee report released Tuesday.渥太华消息—一个新的下院委员会星期二发布报告称，超重的加拿大儿童更多了。由于肥胖，有史以来第一次，这个国家的年轻一代的预期寿命比其父母要短。
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2010-12-23 17:11
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