Posted on 01/27/2006 1:41:43 PM PST by Angus MacGregor
Don't follow super-size Americans, says Prince
By Andrew Pierce
THE Prince of Wales warned the British people last night that they were in danger of becoming as obese as many Americans because they did not walk or cycle enough.
The Prince, who has a fleet of chauffeur-driven cars and has rarely if ever been seen in public on the saddle of a bike, said: “We are perhaps not very far behind our American cousins in the ‘super-sizing epidemic’.”
In his speech at St James’s Palace he gave warning of a worrying sharp rise in childhood obesity. His intervention comes after the British Medical Association said that Britain’s fat youngsters, who account for a third of all obese children in Europe, were at high risk of developing life-threatening conditions, including diabetes and heart disease. One million under-16s were so fat that they were putting their health at risk, the BMA said.
The most recent statistics from the Department of Health indicate that more than 40 per cent of men and 33 per cent of women are overweight and 20 per cent of both are obsese.
The Prince, who credits his trim figure to a diet of one organic meal a day, which he calls the Des O’Connor diet, and long walks on the Scottish moors when he is at Balmoral, said that the rise in obesity was partly caused by the design of modern towns and cities.
“Research suggests that walking or cycling for just half an hour a day can have a significant improvement on our state of health. But why don’t we do it more?” The answer, he said, was that too many towns made it virtually impossible. “It might help if the built environment was more appealing and attractive to pedestrians.”
He urged the Government to embrace the work of Richard Jackson, a former adviser on health to Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California. The Prince said: “Dr Jackson and his colleagues have pointed to a disturbing link between the built environment, physical inactivity and what he terms a syndemic of diseases, including, perhaps most worryingly, childhood obesity.”
Last year Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, and Margaret Hodge, the Children’s Minister, said that junk food advertisements during children’s television programmes would be banned by law if the industry failed to agree a voluntary code. They were contradicted by Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, who said that the scheme would undermine income for ITV.
The topic of how building design affects public wellbeing is one of the Prince’s favourite hobby horses. He set up the Foundation for the Built Environment, which hosted last night’s event, to promote traditional urban design and architecture that put communities at the centre of the process.
In the past, he has called for greater integration of complementary medicine, to be used to tackle obesity, especially in youngsters. In November he backed demands for healthier, more nutritional, school meals.
Your Prince is German, pass it on...
LOL!
Bush ought to tell the American people to brush their teeth so we won't be mistaken for fat Brits!......
I'm with the Prince on this on. Truth hurts but sometimes it needs to be said. And I'm just as guilty as many others about putting on too much weight. But at least I'm working on it.... lost 25 LBS so far.
This royal Ass is stuck On Stupid.
He would make good company for Kennedy and Kerry , two dolts Stuck on Stupid.
An example of good inbreeding. If he becomes king, he will be known as "Charles The Insipid."
Dearest Prince:
It's hard to get fat with no f***ing teeth. Try fluoride, you inbred German self-parodying twit.
The prince is correct in disliking the hideously ugly government housing built by the liberals in charge of his country, but those buildings aren't the cause of obesity. As long as so many British (and non-British) citizens are encouraged to live only for the moment, with no exposure to the idea that their lives might have meaning and purpose, the wave of obesity will continue to swell.
Dontcha wish Charles could be our king, too, so he could tell us what to eat? Of course, he'd have to marry Hillary, since she's h-ll bent on becoming our queen...
BooYah!!!!
Good show - that's almost 2 stone! Run a few more furlongs in the coming fortnight, and you'll be slim as a cricket wicket!
(I agree with the prince about staying in shape, but I resent the comparative part of his speech - I may be fat, but I don't want to be told of it by some jug-headed polo-geek.)
:-)
You probably want to keep that enamel intact - I believe it comes in handy! Swimming is excellent, I've often thought I should take it up for when running/biking become more difficult.
Weight lifting seems to be the most effective weight-loss approach for me, with moderate cardio stuff to maintain stamina and keep the ticker happy...
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