One in Five German Kids,
Teens Now Overweight
Excerpt By Ned Stafford, Reuters Health

BERLIN (Reuters Health) - Two of Germany's top consumer organizations warned of an "alarming increase" in the number of overweight children, and called on politicians and the food industry to take action to fight it.

At a joint press conference here, the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv) and the consumer product testing organization Stiftung Warentest said that 20% of German children and teenagers are now overweight, compared with 12% in 1984.

Edda Mueller, executive director of Federation of German Consumer Organizations, said in a statement, "The affected children often suffer mentally and physically throughout their lives because of malnourishment. As a consequence the health system has to carry additional costs of billions of euros. These costs will rise considerably in the foreseeable future because more and more overweight children mean more and more overweight and sick adults."

Malnourishment can occur among overweight individuals if they eat a calorie-rich, nutrient-poor diet.

Mueller demanded that the German government adopt a model similar to Sweden and ban advertising on television programs targeting children under 12 years old. She also wants food producers to put detailed nutritional information on product labels and pre-schools and schools to take a more active role in promoting healthy eating.

"Children are the weakest consumers," she said in a statement. "Parents, business, but also politicians, are called on to better protect children from malnourishment."

The two consumer organizations listed the three main causes of overweight in children. The first, and primary, cause is an oversupply of high calorie and fatty foods, snacks and "fast foods." They said that a study in the state of in North Rhine-Westphalia found that 14% of 11-year-old girls and 21% of boys eat "high calorie potato chips everyday." Germany-wide, about half of all 11- to 15-year-olds each day eat sweets in the form of hard candies or chocolate.

The Stuftung Warentest said many food products are designed primarily to appeal to children and that a high proportion of those have "too much fat, too little fiber, too much sugar, too many calories and too few vitamins."

The second main cause is a lack of exercise, with many German children preferring to sit for hours in front of a television or at a computer rather than be outside burning off calories. The third main cause is poverty, with the organizations saying that fatty and high-calorie products are often cheaper than healthier foods.

Reference Source 89

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