Polish children are growing fatter faster than anywhere else in Europe, experts have warned ahead of European Obesity Day on Saturday.

In the 1970s, fewer than one in ten school pupils were overweight. Today the figure is one in five, Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.

Prof. Mirosław Jarosz, head of the Food and Nutrition Institute, said many Polish kids are overweight because of a combination of a lack of physical activity and bad eating habits, especially excessive consumption of fat, sugar and salt.

Joanna Jaczewska-Szyc, a dietitian from the institute, said that children in Poland constantly eat snacks, without a break between meals.

A survey of more than 700 GPs from seven European countries conducted for the European Association for the Study of Obesity has found that almost a third of the doctors are not confident enough about the complexities of obesity to offer the best support to patients.

(pk/gs)

Source: IAR/europeanobesityday.eu