so what causes obesity, page-26

Too much emphasis on weight has played its' part, especially for the fairer sex, as yo-yo dieting leads to a lower metabolic rate alongside the increased hours spent sitting on our butts.

Ironically there is also a huge problem with young people developing anorexia and other eating 'disorders'. My brother has identical twins who both developed anorexia around the age of eight or nine, while the non-identical third child of the three did not (triplets); so possibly a genetic component. They seem to be fine now, after a lot of input from the family and the medical system. My personal observation of girls I have known develop anorexia seemed to relate with a tendency for perfection in all that they strove for.

More emphasis and competition during school has added to the problem of obesity. Youngsters have been forced to spend increasing hours 'studying' and doing heavier homework schedules from an early age. The majority of young people also participate in 'further' education at tertiary level than in the past. There just isn't much in the way of physically intensive work around these days. Even heavy industries such as mining have changed radically in this regard, with an emphasis on modern machinery and technology.

Finally, today people have far greater access to foods that we rarely had in the past, such as chocolates, sweets, 'ready-made' meals, condiments, alcoholic drinks and soft drinks. Another suspect addition is trans-fats and aspartame.

We all know we need to exercise more, but what happened to free-time?