Childhood Obesity

"That was a real disappointment despite all of the campaigning, despite banning junk food in tuck shops, despite the Active Challenge we've still got a problem with obesity as there is around the country, so that's a particular disappointment," he said.

Yes, we were talking about childhood obesity today because someone had seen figures on 4 year olds just getting heavier and heavier as the years went by. We were thinking about what would influence that because it has to be our lifestyle. Our gardens are becoming non existent for lots of families so children have nowhere to run around. We talked of how parents are frightened to let their children play outside anyway because of strangers, druggies, undesirables. So we no longer feel safe. We thought of the long working hours of parents and then how they would be too tired to play with children. We thought of all the gadgets and technology which encourage children to sit and be passive. If we have made no inroads into getting our children to be slimmer it's food and exercise. too much of the wrong food and too little exercise. You rarely see children riding around on bikes or running everywhere.  We need to create a more active society and it would probably do us all good, then we need to look at our food and South Australia is well placed to provide good food but then we need the time to prepare it.Our play parks are deserted. Our streets don't have children and there is no running around. Somehow we need to get ourselves outside more and increase our feeling of safety on the streets. Numbers make it safer.