In her report, she described an explosion in childhood obesity as “one of the most serious health challenges of the early 21st Century”.

She said the issue of overweight children had trebled in the last three decades, and could lead to “serious health consequences, significant reductions in quality of life and a greater risk of bullying and social isolation”.

According to a programme brought in during 2011 to measure the height and weight of every school pupil at age five in Wales, 28% were overweight or obese.

Evidence presented in the report also suggested that there had been very little change in the rates of physical activity for any adult age group.

In addition, with the exception of the over-65s, fewer adults were eating five or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day compared with 2008.

In her conclusion, the chief medical officer stressed: “Action on obesity is urgent and there is growing evidence that physical activity benefits both our mental and physical health.

Lifestyle habits such as smoking and heavy drinking are identified as challenges by the report

“Everyone needs to be more active.”

BBC News – Obesity challenge ‘urgent’ warning by chief medical officer

The traditional diet in Mexico, which ranks No. 1 in the world in childhood obesity and No. 2 in adult obesity, was based on a balanced mix of foods rich in nutrients, vitamins, protein and minerals, the conservatory president said.

Mexico’s traditional diet was not “fully vegetarian,” but it was based on foods grown in the countryside, Lopez said.

About 70 percent of Mexico’s people are obese or overweight, the United Nations said in a recent report.

Lopez said she supported taxing soft drinks, a measure included by President Enrique Peña Nieto in his tax reform package.

Mexican World Gastronomy Forum vice president Eduardo Wichtendahl, for his part, said traditional cooking should be marketed differently.

“Gastronomy today should be placed (in the market) not so much as a subproduct of tourism but as a product in and of itself,” Wichtendahl said.

The Mexican World Gastronomy Forum will take place in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco Oct. 9-12.

There is great ignorance about Mexican food, with many people confusing it with “Tex-Mex” food, a regional cuisine created in the southwestern United States, or thinking it is limited to just tortillas, chilis and tacos, Wichtendahl said.

The traditional Mexican diet eaten by Indian peoples was based on corn, beans and chilis, and was loaded with vitamin C, Wichtendahl said.

The problem in Mexico is excessive consumption of soft drinks, Wichtendahl said, adding that the country’s soft drink consumption averages 163 liters (43.3 gallons) per capita annually.

Experts: Mexicans Should Return To Traditional Cuisine To Fight Obesity | Fox News Latino

The Royal College of Physicians has called on the Government to introduce a 20% tax on sugar sweetened drinks, including sports drinks, in the Budget to tackle obesity.

One in four Irish children is classified as overweight or obese and doctors say sugary foods and drinks are a big part of the problem.

Professor Donal O’Shea of St Vincent’s Hospital said the RCPI believes the tax would significantly impact childhood obesity and in time adult obesity.

“We simply have to act, obesity is killing 6,000 people a year in Ireland,” Prof O’Shea said.

He said the best way to impact the consumption of “free sugar” is to target sugar-sweetened drinks.

Prof O’Shea said a number of measures are needed together to tackle the problem of obesity in the population.

“Simply taxing sugar sweetened drinks without education wont work,” he said.But doing nothing “is not an option”, he added.

Physicians call for sugar tax to tackle obesity – RTÉ News

American coffee consumption is up 5 percent this year, with 83 percent of adults drinking it, according to the National Coffee Association’s 2013 National Coffee Drinking Trends report.

The difficulty, nutritionists say, is that only half of regular coffee drinkers are picking brewed coffee, consumption of which is down 7 percent from 2012.

“The old days of buying a cup of coffee and putting a packet of sugar in it are far behind us,” said Jane Hurley, senior nutritionist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Instead, 31 percent (about the same as last year) opt for gourmet drinks such as cappuccinos and lattes. Many go even fancier. A 2009 survey of orders in New York City by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found two-thirds of Starbucks customers and a quarter of Dunkin’ Donuts customers picked blended coffee drinks, which use more milk, flavored syrups and whipped cream.

Those drinks pack a higher calorie count — on average 240 calories, versus 75 for brewed coffee with cream and sugar, said Pat Fiducia, chief executive for CalorieKing Publications, which tracks nutrition information for restaurant items. But many contain even more calories, sugar and fat.

Here’s why your coffee habit is making you fat – NBC News.com

Popular U.S. dating site, OkCupid.com lets online daters pay $4.95 (£3) to hide anyone who classes themselves ‘curvy’, ‘skinny’, ‘thin’, ‘jacked’ or ‘used up’ among other body types.

‘While it will probably be common knowledge to many internet dating aficionados, OkCupid’s premium search options are eyebrow-raising in an era of tolerance and political correctness,’ writes Kermalmag.com journalist James Cook, who spotted the function.

OkCupid also allows its ‘A-list members’ – who pay a monthly subscription fee of between $4.49 and $9.95 – to filter people by both looks and figure.

You can select people in a drop-down menu who have body types such as ‘thin’, ‘skinny’, ‘overweight and ‘curvy’.

You can also filter people based on their attractiveness rating, as ranked by other users.

An anonymous OkCupid user added: ‘I’ve been using OkCupid for just over a year now, and it’s pretty disconcerting to think men have the ability to filter me out by my body type.

However, the function is still placing a lot of trust in people’s accurate description of themselves. I myself have been lucky that every guy I’ve met from the site has looked their pictures, but others I know have had some horrible surprises when they meet in person.’

‘Ultimately, what freaks me out the most is the kind of person that would pay to exercise that degree of control over their results. To me, that suggests that the weird and wonderful world of online dating might not be for you.’

Rowan Pelling added: ‘OkCupid is clearly the Abercrombie & Fitch of dating sites, allowing curvy types to be screened out of supposed A-List members searches.

‘All I can say is that you’re pretty dumb and Z-list if you allow screening so prejudiced that some brainless body-fascist can screen out all plus-size suitors: goodbye Marilyn Monroe, Sophie Dahl, Lena Dunham, Gerard Depardieu, James Corden, Seth Rogen.’

OKCupid.com lets you pay to filter out fat ugly people | Mail Online

The city’s obesity rate among adults has skyrocketed 25 percent since Mayor Bloomberg took office in 2002, city Health Department figures show.

That year, nearly one in five New Yorkers was considered obese. Now almost one in four is.

The figures are surprising given Gotham’s residents are doing better according to other health indicators.

For example, the percentage of adults who drink one or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day dropped to 28 percent last year from 36 percent in 2007, says the Health Department’s Take Care New York 2012 report.

The data also show more people are physically active and eating vegetables.

Both improvements come after Hizzoner pushed for the expansion of bike lanes and healthier school meals.The city also banned unhealthy trans fats from eatery menus starting in 2007.

The obesity epidemic is one reason Bloomberg and city Health Commissioner Tom Farley issued the edict last year to limit the sizes of soda and other sugary drinks to 16 ounces. It has been struck down in court.

Health officials admit fat is a formidable foe.

“Despite recent declines, sugary-drink consumption remains far higher today than it was in the 1970s, when the obesity epidemic began to surge,’’ a department spokeswoman said.

“Nationwide, adult obesity rates have been going up for at least the last 30 years, and we expect a lag in changes in the adult obesity rate after a change in diet.

“We are seeing declines in obesity in children, and [the] fall in sugary-drink consumption may have prevented our city from having even higher obesity rates.”

Nutrition experts praised the Bloomberg administration for releasing anti-obesity ad campaigns and requiring calorie counts for meals in fast-food joints.

But they said education goes only so far.

“It’s easier to gain weight than lose weight. We live in a toxic environment of junk food and excess. It’s a culture we still embrace,” said Lisa Young, an NYU nutrition professor who writes The Portion Teller blog.

Obesity up 25 percent in NYC | New York Post