By 2015, one child in five will be obese in the Netherlands, according to a study carried out by the Nicis research institute in the country’s major cities. Fewer than 10% of children in primary school manage to average half an hour exercise a day. Among teenagers, it is fewer than 30%.

The institute found a direct relation between weight gain and the opportunity to play games or sports in the children’s neighbourhood. Nicis underlined the duty of city councils to develop opportunities for exercise, by encouraging children to bike to school and improving safety at sports fields so children are not deterred by the risk of being attacked. The institute also stressed that parental attitudes were a determining factor: sporty parents tend to have sporty children while lazy couch-potatoes have children like them.

Risk of being attacked should be ‘risk of being beaten up for being fat or an easy target’.

No one word about bad eating habits, not one! Children take on some 90% of their parents’ habits as well, not just their sports habits.

Here a nice list of who’s fat in the world. There’s a cultural explanation for the top 8 and a serious difference in population size.

Some perspective: The US is No. 9, the Netherlands is No. 106. Don’t worry too much.

(link: int.iol.ca.za, via webwatch.be)