Michelle Obama has launched a war against childhood obesity here in America. And it looks like our friends across the pond have to fight one as well.
The Daily Mail has published a photo that will truly make your stomach turn. It shows a child surrounded by a mountain of junk food -- chips, ice cream, hamburgers -- representing how much the typical British child consumes in just one year.
It's difficult to determine just where lawmakers in the United Kingdom stand on the issue of childhood obesity: This weekend doctors called on the government to impose "fat taxes" on unhealthy food and provide public service announcements to warn against childhood obesity. Yet instead, the government eliminated The Food Standard Agency -- a watchdog group that regulated junk-food companies -- thereby sending the message that it is more interested in cutting down costs than regulating processed and unhealthy food.
The Daily Mail ran the shocking junk food photo to protest this decision. Here's what's included in a British child's annual diet:
47 packages of cookies
54 packs of Cadbury Mini Rolls
256 cream cheese triangles
6 tubs of ice cream
3 blocks of butter
14 packs of bacon
13 bags of chicken nuggets
17 hamburgers
68,225g of milk (mostly whole)
600 cocktail sausages
14 meat pies
130 fish fingers
8 bags of oven-baked french fries
3.5 bags of sugar in candy and jams
52 chocolate bars
32 liters of juice
20 boxes of cereal
My first thought: Oh my god, British kids eat a disgusting amount of junk food! My second: I bet this unhealthy diet isn't far off from that of American kids.
Are you surprised by how much food British kids eat every year? How do you think this compares to the diet of American children?
Image via _pdra's_portfolio/Flickr
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Comments 8
I think we eat more hamburgers here.
I'm pretty sure the average kid eats more than 52 choccies a year. My nephews eat one day. At least
I was a little suprised to see the Shredded Wheat and Bran cereal boxes stacked next to him as I would initially assume that that would be a GOOD thing for a child to eat, being high in fiber low in sugar...
Whole milk and Shredded Wheat are bad?
Anyway, I think the average American is worse.
juice milk and what looks like relativly healthy cereal bad?
Americans eat way worse. Lets see all those happy meals!
Guys, keep in mind that this is from the Daily Mail. They're kind of notorious for unreputable sources of information. Of course Shredded Wheat isn't bad for you. But paired in bulk with other junk food makes it look like a better read.
I think they compare.