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Children, Young People & Health
Healthy lifestyle is a major issue
for Irish children. Many Irish children have poor eating
habits and are not physically active, and this has a huge impact on
life-long health. Cardiovascular disease, the most common cause of death, is
directly related to lifestyle and begins in childhood. Eighty-six percent of
all deaths in Ireland result from lifestyle-related chronic illnesses and childhood obesity is
now a major public health problem -
one quarter of all Irish children are overweight, and childhood obesity is
approaching epidemic proportions.
Prevention is better than cure - we need to think about the future health
of children now! Poor diet and lack of physical activity are a health time bomb,
being
linked to an increased risk for:
 | Obesity |
| Type II Diabetes |
| Cancer |
| Heart Disease |
| Stroke |
Knowing about these illnesses is vitally
important for children, young people, parents and schools. For example,
heart disease results from decades of poor lifestyle habits that begin in
early childhood. The risk of contracting many common cancers is also linked
to lifestyle habits. Unfortunately, many children lead a “couch
potato” life, with very little physical activity, and a poor diet. If we don’t change
this situation, the next generation is going to be in real trouble.
More than a third of Irish adults are overweight. Poor diet and
inadequate physical activity are closely linked to obesity, but carrying a few extra pounds is really just the tip of the
iceberg. Ireland already has some of the worst rates of chronic disease in the
Western world, with 40% of our population dying from heart disease and 25%
from cancer.
It’s not all doom and gloom – most of these modern illnesses are
preventable. Simple changes to lifestyle have a big effect on quality of
life and life expectancy, and that's where we come in. By helping children
to develop healthy lifestyle habits, and by making healthy lifestyle choices
easier to access, we can protect the health of the next generation.
You Can Make a Difference...
This site includes
health education material,
school resources,
practical tips for
parents, school food resources and student resources.The
service we provide to schools is
completely free, so if
you are an interested parent or teacher, contact us for more
information.
Get Involved!
If this issue
is important to you, and if you like what we're doing, let others know.
Email your friends and let them know about our site. Sign up to our
email newsletter. If you
have a website, consider linking to this site. Print our materials and give
them to your friends, or just mention the importance of the lifestyle issue
to others.
We hope
that you find our website useful. You may freely distribute all of our
school health resources, so long as you provide a reference/link to RedBranch.
Make Some Changes...
If you're a parent, why
not make some simple changes? You could keep sweets and other high calorie snacks for special
occasions rather than everyday foods, or you could start helping your kids
to be more physically active. See our parents
section for more ideas on improving your family's health.
If you are a teacher or work in a school, why not
make some changes? Evidence shows that when
children and young people have access to healthy food and physical activity,
behaviour and academic performance improves, as well as health. Secondary
schools could remove fizzy drinks vending machines and replace them with
healthier alternatives. Schools could also resolve to encourage physical activity by making
a wider range of activities available, such as hip-hop dance, aerobics, yoga
or salsa dance. Primary schools could operate a school fruit break, or could
start a Positive Playground initiative.
Contact RedBranch if you'd like help with these ideas or any other
healthy school issues.
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Eating fruit regularly has many health benefits - according to the World
Health Organisation, 2.7 million lives worldwide could be saved each year if
people ate enough fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, most Irish children
do not eat enough fruit.In a recent school survey carried out by RedBranch,
only 4% of students ate the recommended minimum amount of fruit per day. The
good news is that we can change this. The proportion of kids consuming fruit
regularly more than doubles when schools run RedBranch school fruit
promotions.
Illnesses like heart disease,
cancer and stroke are closely linked
to lifestyle. By helping children and
young people to be physically
active and to have a healthy diet, the risk of these illnesses is
drastically reduced.
According to the World Health Organisation, inadequate intake of fruit and
vegetables causes almost one fifth of gastrointestinal cancer and almost one
third of ischaemic heart disease... yet fruit and vegetable consumption in
Irish children is particularly low. Why not start a school
fruit break in your school? |
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