Australian teenagers could for the first time in the nation’s history live shorter lives than their parents due to a culture of bad diets and little exercise, health experts have warned.
In a blow to the nation’s international image as a country of health-conscious exercise junkies, the results of the largest survey of Australian secondary students in 25 years found that one quarter were overweight or obese.
The study, conducted by the Cancer Council of Australia, surveyed the diets and physical activity of 12,000 13 to 18-year-olds in more than 240 schools across the country.
The results painted a bleak picture, with just 14 per cent of students eating both the recommended daily intake of vegetables and fruit, while 85 per cent did not engage in enough physical activity to improve their health.
Close to half ate from fast food or take-away outlets at least once a week and one third drank more than four fizzy or sugary drinks each week.
Professor Ian Olver, the Cancer Council Australia chief, said the results showed that the country was facing a “chronic disease time bomb” with overweight teenagers more likely to develop heart disease or cancer and die at an earlier age than their parents.
“If ever there was a wake-up call for Australians, this is it,” he said.
“As obese kids move into adulthood the heightened risk of chronic diseases like cancer means previous gains in life expectancy may be reversed.
“We may see today’s teenagers die at a younger age than their parents’ generation for the first time in history” Dr Lyn Roberts, head of the National Heart Foundation of Australia, said overweight children risked growing into “the heart attack victims of tomorrow.”
Australia is one of the world’s fattest nations in the world, with the most recent National Health Survey classifying 25 per cent of people aged 18 or older as obese, and 37 per cent as overweight.
Similar problems exist in Britain, where doctors have warned that some children will not live as long as their parents if current trends of poor diet and lack of exercise continue.
In 2008, research by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) found that the risk of children getting cancer was double that of their parents’ generation due to obesity.
Studies have previously predicted that cancer rates in America could double by 2050, based on current trends in the number of cancer cases as well as known triggers for the disease, such as obesity and people living longer.
By Bonnie Malkin
Telegraph UK