Generation X risk dying before parents

The Advertiser ^ | 6/11/06 | Staff

[qam1]

GENERATION Xs are at risk of dying before their parents with a new Australian study showing they are becoming obese faster than any other age group.

The Sydney University study found adults born between 1966 and 1970 were putting on weight more rapidly than baby boomers and adults of the pre-war generations.

Diet and lack of physical activity have been blamed for the Generation Xs being more prone to plumpness, having grown up with television, computer games, fast food restaurants and larger meal sizes.

The findings have sparked calls for health campaigns which specifically target Generation Xs and their children, who are also believed to be at risk.

Commissioned by New South Wales Health, the Weight of Time study analysed data from three national health surveys to determine the effect ageing and generation had on weight gain. The three groups studied were born from 1966 to 1970, 1951 to 1955 and 1936 to 1940.

The study found the Body Mass Index (BMI), a measure incorporating weight and height, rose in adults of all generations over a 10-year period.

But the largest increases occurred in adults born between 1966 and 1970.

The study predicted 88per cent of men and 61 per cent of women born during this time would be overweight by 2010.

Australians born during WWI, WWII and during the Great Depression were found to have the lowest BMI growth.

Unlike Generation Xs, baby boomers and pre-war babies grew up in an environment when food was more scarce and higher levels of activity were required.

Author Dr Adrian Bauman, a public health professor from Sydney University and director of the Centre for Physical Activity and Health, said the results of the study were of great concern.

"We found the rate of weight gain among young adults is accelerating faster than in other generations," he said.

"At the rate at which some young adults are putting on weight, we could hypothetically see them dying before their parents."

Dr Bauman said the children of Generation Xs were also at risk as they had grown up with similarly sedentary lifestyles.

NSW Health Minister John Hatzistergos said young adults who failed to change their lifestyle habits risked acquiring illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease.

Sarah-Jane Bedingfield, 37, was born in the Generation X-era, but her lifestyle is far from sedentary.

The Manly mother-of-two credits her parents for ensuring that she had an active and healthy childhood, values she hopes to pass on to her sons - Thomas, four, and Harrison, one.

"I grew up with ballet and still play tennis and go to the gym," she said. "I think the happiest children are the ones who are active andhealthy."

Lisa Porter, a 32-year-old production TV co-ordinator from Drummoyne, also defies the Generation X trend.

"I cycle to work and I don't spend much time in front of the TV," she said. "Also, my mother has never given us processed food and I only have junk food if I have a hangover."

[ladyinred]

The food police are everywhere!

[Cogadh na Sith]

BMI.... Ha!

I'm 6'2, 288lbs: Bodybuilder, runner and compete in strongman events.

You wish you had a body like mine.

BMI: 37--Morbidly obese. HAHAHAHAHAHA!