Title: Obesity blamed on passive over-eating | The Independent | The Independent
Headings: Obesity blamed on passive over-eating
Obesity blamed on passive over-eating
Nation's health: Diet and exercise initiative is launched as the Army wages its own battle against flabby soldiers

Content: Speaking at the launch of a new healthy lifestyle initiative by the food and drink industry yesterday, Dr Prentice said there had been a 50 per cent increase in the fat to carbohydrate ratio in the national diet since the 1960s. " Food intake has been declining from its peak in the mid-1960s, so how is it that we have a burgeoning increase in obesity?" he asked. "In part the reason is that although we are consuming a similar [or decreased] bulk of food there are many more calories per gram. It is passive over- eating - we don't necessarily want to eat more ... but neither we nor our bodies are recognising [the extra calories] and reducing the quantity of food accordingly." But a predilection for fattier foods is only part of the story, and the increase in "sloth" may be a more significant factor, Dr Prentice said. A rapid decline in levels of physical activity has coincided with soaring obesity rates. Less than 6 per cent of children now walk to school, compared with up to 80 per cent in the 1950s and 1960s. Television viewing has doubled from 13.5 hours in 1967 to 27 hours in 1992; people now spend 40 per cent of their leisure time watching TV, he added. "