Our children joining the world's heavyweights : report

"Nearly 100,000 more children become overweight each year in this country," National Economic and Social Advisory Council chairman Gothom Arya said yesterday

Speaking at an international conference on snack marketing for children, Gothom referred to information on Thai children between 2004 and 2006. By his definition, children are those aged between five and 12 years old.

He said children became overweight mainly because of "over nutrition and the exces¬sive consumption of snacks". According to Gothom, the snack market was valued at over Bt100 billion last year.

"Being overweight poses a health risk," Gothom added. Thursday's conference attracted more than 200 participants.

Dr Wittaya Kulsomboon, who is working on plans to protect consumers' health, suggested the government use tax measures to discourage the consumption of unhealthy food, snacks, candies and carbonated drinks.

"Many countries have gone as far as banning snack ads," he said.

Globally, there are more than one billion overweight adults, at least 300 million of them are obese.

A person has traditionally been considered obese if they are more than 20 percent over their ideal weight.

Overweight people are between average weight and obesity, determined by a measurement

of weight in relationship to height. Both conditions pose a major risk for chronic disease, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and strokes, and certain forms of cancer.