Brasília, May 28, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - One of every ten children in the world is obese. This amounts to a population of 155 million overweight boys and girls. This index gives a strong indication that child obesity has assumed epidemic proportions around the world.

In Brazil data from the World Health Organization are alarming and place child obesity in the category of a serious public health issue. Over the last 20 years child obesity has tripled. At present nearly 15% of Brazilian children are overweight, and 5% are obese.

According to the Brazilian Society of Endocrinology and Metabology, child obesity is not limited to the part of the population with greater buying power; it also affects low-income groups. The main villain in this process of weight gain in children is the growing consumption of fast foods, high-calory sandwiches, and soft drinks. In addition to the ready access at school lunch counters to processed snacks, fried foods, and other kinds of goodies.

Concerned about this situation, the Brazilian Societies of Endocrinology and Pediatrics and the Brazilian Association for the Study of Obesity teamed up to check this trend and launched, today, the Healthy School project, to change childrens' attitudes and get them to adopt healthy eating habits.

"Through this project we intend to change the attitude of lunch counter operators and educate teachers to orient the children. To use games and skits to teach children in a creative manner what a healthy food is, so that they are able to refuse hyper-caloric foods that don't nourish, only fatten," emphasized the president of the Brazilian Society of Endocrinology and Metabology, Valéria Guimarães.

Representatives of 192 countries gathered last week at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, approved a global plan to regulate world eating habits. The plan proposes that children be educated in school in order for obesity to be controlled in the world within twenty years.

Reporter: Cleide Vieira
Translator: David Silberstein