A third of children will leave primary school carrying excess weight, cancer charity warns

The leading cancer charity, Cancer Research UK, has released new figures showing the worrying upward trend of childhood obesity.
As youngsters prepare to start school next week, the charity reports that one in three are likely to finish primary school either overweight or obese.
According to Cancer Research UK, 57,100 children who started primary school in England at a healthy weight end up dealing with unhealthy weight gain by the time they leave.
It is estimated that one in five youngsters are overweight or obese when starting primary school, a figure that has now risen to one in three when they leave.
The greater need for larger school uniforms to fit ever-expanding waistlines highlights the extent of the growing obesity epidemic.
Cancer Research UK has transformed a shop front in East London into a size XL school uniforms shop, as it is slowly becoming the new norm.
The charity blames in part the Government, in the wake of the release of its watered-down childhood obesity plan, for not doing nearly enough to tackle the childhood obesity crisis.
The document, published two weeks ago, fell short of curbing junk food advertising or introducing more incentives to reduce sugar consumption besides a sugar tax, for example.
A Department of Health spokesman has reacted to the charity’s findings by reassuring anti-childhood obesity campaigners that progress will be measured carefully and further action will be taken if positive results from the newly introduced obesity plan measures are not seen.
This could for instance mean implementing bans on junk food marketing during family viewing time instead of just during children’s programmes.