A new World Health Organization (WHO) report states there is a growing number of Israeli children who are overweight, over 500,000 at present. Israel ranks in first place in the dubious ranking of obesity in Europe, with 12.6% of children labeled as overweight, ranking second in the world community behind the United States with 12.9% of its children fitting in this category. The average in Europe is 7.4% of the children, far behind Israel and the US.
The WHO report was prepared for the day marking the epidemic, global obesity prevention, which take place in two weeks. This year will mark International Day for Childhood Obesity – which has become a global Mecca.
The report determines that 28.8% of Israelis ages 2-to-18 are overweight. The report states in eight years, this alarming trend could reach 50%, impacting about 740,000 children.
Overweight children suffer from headaches, respiratory issues, sleep disturbance and problems concentrating. They are also more prone to contract diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and other maladies.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
Instead of condolence on president Peres …. Israel gets blamed on having overweight kids?? Do something about the American children first then possibly I can hear them blame Israel and Europe .
Strange. The children I see here in Israel look underweight, yet when fellow American visitors come, they appear rather ‘well fed’.