Posted on 06/11/2006 3:51:50 PM PDT by qam1
GENERATION Xs are at risk of dying before their parents with a new Australian study showing they are becoming obese faster than any other age group.
The Sydney University study found adults born between 1966 and 1970 were putting on weight more rapidly than baby boomers and adults of the pre-war generations.
Diet and lack of physical activity have been blamed for the Generation Xs being more prone to plumpness, having grown up with television, computer games, fast food restaurants and larger meal sizes.
The findings have sparked calls for health campaigns which specifically target Generation Xs and their children, who are also believed to be at risk.
Commissioned by New South Wales Health, the Weight of Time study analysed data from three national health surveys to determine the effect ageing and generation had on weight gain. The three groups studied were born from 1966 to 1970, 1951 to 1955 and 1936 to 1940.
The study found the Body Mass Index (BMI), a measure incorporating weight and height, rose in adults of all generations over a 10-year period.
But the largest increases occurred in adults born between 1966 and 1970.
The study predicted 88per cent of men and 61 per cent of women born during this time would be overweight by 2010.
Australians born during WWI, WWII and during the Great Depression were found to have the lowest BMI growth.
Unlike Generation Xs, baby boomers and pre-war babies grew up in an environment when food was more scarce and higher levels of activity were required.
Author Dr Adrian Bauman, a public health professor from Sydney University and director of the Centre for Physical Activity and Health, said the results of the study were of great concern.
"We found the rate of weight gain among young adults is accelerating faster than in other generations," he said.
"At the rate at which some young adults are putting on weight, we could hypothetically see them dying before their parents."
Dr Bauman said the children of Generation Xs were also at risk as they had grown up with similarly sedentary lifestyles.
NSW Health Minister John Hatzistergos said young adults who failed to change their lifestyle habits risked acquiring illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease.
Sarah-Jane Bedingfield, 37, was born in the Generation X-era, but her lifestyle is far from sedentary.
The Manly mother-of-two credits her parents for ensuring that she had an active and healthy childhood, values she hopes to pass on to her sons - Thomas, four, and Harrison, one.
"I grew up with ballet and still play tennis and go to the gym," she said. "I think the happiest children are the ones who are active andhealthy."
Lisa Porter, a 32-year-old production TV co-ordinator from Drummoyne, also defies the Generation X trend.
"I cycle to work and I don't spend much time in front of the TV," she said. "Also, my mother has never given us processed food and I only have junk food if I have a hangover."
Who will make my social security payment?
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
LOL. I am already getting mine.... How's YOUR health?? I am depending on YOU!! LOL!!
So we don't have to worry about social security now?
Nanny State Ping
But, but, but, but since they banned smoking everywhere weren't we all suppose to live forever??
Or make the payments on our national debt!
If Generation X dies before reaching the age at which they may collect Social Security, the system is safe. It was originally set up with the very cynical view that less than half of the participants would live long enough to collect even the amount they had contributed, and as a bonus, they only saw what they themsleves had contributed, not the pervasive tax on all wages that is the payroll tax "paid" by the employer.
The truth is, the "employer's half" is simply taken out of the pool of money the employer sets aside for the payment of wages. In reality the entire amount comes out of the wages for labor the employee is entitled to.
State-run lotteries have been referred to as "a tax on the stupid". This version of a lottery, Social Security, makes the assumption that all wage earners are stupid, and taxes them accordingly.
1. BMI is bull#$@%. Don't believe any study based on that crap.
2. I thought obesity was an AMERICAN problem, you know, McDonald's and BK and Taco Bell et al. I know those franchise now reach foreign shores but I doubt it has reached the point where the whole world is scarfing down value meals from us evil Americans. So why are Aussies getting fat if American capitalism isn't to blame?
3. I thought Gen X grew far beyond the range of 1966 to 1970. Bad sample size to be drawing such broad conclusions? Maybe the kids from 1971-1980 aren't in as bad shape and would screw up their data? Hmm?
4. As Gen Xers get older, there will be a whole host of new and better medicines and treatments for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, etc. So it's downright stupid to think Gen Xers will be stuck with the very same treatments that the Boomers are facing today.
In short, the story is more alarmist, health-nazi propoganda. Funny how the libs who also argue that the world is overpopulating itself care so deeply that people are dying off faster. You'd think they'd be happy about that - meaning there is some other agenda involved. Could it be more government control of our lives? I kinda think so.
I sense the health nazis have chosen fast food as their next target..
1) smoking - done
2) fast food - in progress
3) cologne/perfume - ottawa, canada has proposed an ordinance to ban them from government buildings
4) anything else THEY decide is bad for us - in progress
Social security won't be there for us anyway.
BUT..BUT..BUT..the government says it will be, so it must be true..
These are a bunch of arrogant bureaucrats in search of a cause, searching for someone to order around and harass.
Soviets trusted the government to provide something as simple as toilet paper, and look where that got them. We expect a pension from government? Sure.
Uh, OK. Whatever.
"I sense the health nazis have chosen fast food as their next target.. "
Ahh yes the all-wise all-knowing freedom bashing liberals...
you can bet these items wont be banned
1. porn/sex-perversions
2. marijuana
3. voter fraud
"Who will make my social security payment?"
This sixtysomething working stiff doesn't give a rip! If Generation XYZers start dropping like flies for lack of exercise and common-sense nutrition (don't forget recreational drug use), then my middle-aged a$$ stays right in the workplace earning big bucks with fewer worries about some young cyberpunk coming along and putting me out to pasture.
"Supersize that, will you?" >;^)
(fireproof suit donned)
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