Balance of Food

To no one's surprise, Scottish children are among the most overweight in the world thanks to a diet of junk food and a couch potato lifestyle, according to health experts. Official statistics show that a third of Scots children were classed overweight before they hit their teens, one in five was obese, and that more than one in 10 was rated as severely obese. "Twenty percent of children classed as obese puts Scotland pretty much in the same league as the United States," said Neville Rigby of the International Obesity Taskforce, an independent body that brings together obesity experts. I don't suppose that was a compliment to the U.S. The figures from Scottish Health Statistics showed that among Scottish children born in 2001, 20.7 percent were overweight by the time they were 3.5 years old. Poor diet and lack of exercise are considered key problems. When older people were kids, we probably ate crap as well (though without high-fructose corn syrup), but we got a lot more exercise. Unless video games are as prevalent in Scotland as they are in the U.S., there must be some other explanation.