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Last update - 05:48 04/11/2009
Will Israeli schools hop on the anti-obesity bandwagon?
By Jonathan Lis
Tags: Danny Danon, Israel news 

The state should combat obesity among the young by better monitoring of the food served in schools, community centers and youth clubs and banning vending machines in schools that offer sweets and carbonated drinks, according to a bill proposed by Likud MK Danny Danon.

The Knesset Research Center says that more than 30 percent of all adults in Israel struggle with obesity, and the figure keeps growing. More than 10 percent of Israel's young people are obese, the center says, and eight out of 10 obese teenagers will become obese adults.


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The purpose of the bill is to combat obesity among young people," MK Danon said. "Obesity has been declared an epidemic by the World Health Organization, and it exists in Israel as well. Indeed, Israel is ranked third in Europe for obesity among children."

Danon said Israel would rank third for child obesity if it were ranked among European states.

"Child obesity leads to severe chronic diseases, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiac problems, orthopedic disabilities and more," the introduction to the bill explains. "Beyond the physiological damage, obesity also causes mental anguish," it adds, noting that fat children suffer from poor self-image."

The bill adds: "Health Ministry estimates suggest that the direct and secondary costs of obesity to the state budget run up to NIS 10 billion a year."

The bill envisions monitoring food sold in schools, as it is completely unsupervised for quality and nutritional value and says this would not require significant new investment by the state, since it stresses obliging food vendors to obtain approval from the proposed monitoring authority.

Danon believes that in the long run, the bill would save considerable sums that go for treating obese minors who turn into fat, sick adults. "School kiosks exploit the children being penned in on school grounds and sell them fattening food without any real alternative. Although the director-general of the Education Ministry had issued specific guidelines on the matter, the shop owners couldn't care less about regulations or for the kids' health," said Danon. "They only care about [lining] their pockets."

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      1.   junk food 06:37  |  Laurie 04/11/09
      2.   A dull deadly problem 07:04  |  Michael 04/11/09
      3.   8 out of 10 become obese adults? More like 30 out of 10 07:30  |  ABN 04/11/09
      4.   Bamba in the park 07:34  |  Susan 04/11/09
      5.   childhood obesity and junk food 07:43  |  michael 04/11/09
      6.   #4 Susan have you also seen Anorexia in teenage girls 10:53  |  SJ 04/11/09
      7.   diet 13:28  |  Ethan 04/11/09
      8.   to #6 06:57  |  Susan 05/11/09
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