A recent study of child obesity set off alarm bells across the country. Researchers found that ten years ago twelve percent of all children were obese, according to Health Canada's standards. Last year, ten years later, that figure had more than doubled to twenty-five percent.

Being a polite society, we put these numbers aside, shake our heads, perhaps, but leave the question of obesity to the parents and to the kids themselves because body size -- and body image -- are personal matters.

But they aren't.

How we see ourselves may well be a personal question, but the costs of obesity to our society take the problem out of the personal.

Excessive weight often leads to diabetes, heart problems, and depression -- while these are a personal burden, these health problems, and others associated with high weight levels, become a burden on society as a whole. In twenty years cardiac and diabetes patients could double -- and this from a preventable cause.

The researchers recommended a multi-pronged approach to the problem. Parents carry the most responsibility. Good intentions by parents are not enough; often it comes to setting an example on eating habits, exercise, and recreation.

It won't do to tell our kids "Do as I say, don't do as I do." There is no way parents who eat fast foods or slump in front of the TV can convince their kids not to do the same. The best approach is starting when the kids are babies and keeping up an example and a firm resolve until the kids are off on their own.

The researchers also mentioned schools -- even daycares -- which have junk foods, candy, and soft drinks vending machines. The schools wouldn't sell beer or cigarettes from vending machines, so why junk foods and chemical drinks?

Most restaurants offer super-sized portions. The food is piled on in an attempt to convince the customers that they are getting good bargain for their dollars, but they aren't, if the excessive portions lead to over-eating and fat buildup. Quality not quantity should be every restaurant's motto -- and every customer's expectation.

Stores and shops which put candy at kid-level in the check-out line are signaling to parents that other practises of the store might be equally pernicious. Shop elsewhere.

And advertising continually promotes junk and fast food, as though speed out-weighs the ill effects of sugar, salt, and trans fats. It is terrible that such marketers are able to free to target young children in particular.

In the end, obesity is a social problem and one our community should take more seriously than it does.

True, there is no magic bullet, no magic diet, no pill to solve this problem. But the solution is not complex either: good food in moderate portions and good exercise are not rocket science. But they require will power and firmness -- will power, firmness, and setting the example.

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Copyright © 2007 Fred Ryan/Log Cabin Chronicles/05.07