Why childhood obesity crisis shows urgent need to turn Scotland into 'sporting nation'

Improving the health of the population would be good for the economy, government tax revenues and the NHS

Do you want to live a long and happy life? If so, there is one thing that is more important than almost anything else: exercise.

Physical fitness is about as close to being a cure-all for our troubles as it’s possible to get, helping us fight off diseases and greatly benefitting our mental health. It means we are less likely to suffer from conditions that prevent us from working, affecting our personal wealth, while a healthy population is good for the economy, government tax revenues and the NHS.

All this is well known but, even so, just under a third of adults in Scotland are obese. Now experts say that childhood obesity has risen to alarming levels. Researchers from the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and the Italian National Academy of Sciences found 1.3 million children are obese and 2.3 million are overweight in the UK.

"Childhood obesity has become an urgent public health challenge that is both affecting lives today and storing up problems for the future,” they wrote in a report.

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Going for a regular jog or walk can have a significant effect on both our health and happiness (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell) | Getty Images

Not about blaming and shaming

Stressing that the first 1,000 days of life are "critical to development and health across the life-course", they recommended measures to help women begin pregnancy at a healthy weight, encourage breastfeeding – linked with a reduced risk of childhood obesity – and avoid "rapid catch-up growth" in low-birth-weight babies.

They said that excess weight gain early in life could set children on a trajectory that could be difficult to change after the age of five. However, they also stressed “this isn't about individual willpower or blaming and shaming” but about creating an environment that helps people make the right choices. This is a key point.

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Scotland desperately needs to become a ‘sporting nation’, a country in which everyone, young and old, has some kind of sport, whether it’s a regular walk in the park, football, rugby or marathon running.

If we all did something, the effects would be profound and our good habits would influence our children. It’s time for our political leaders to wake up to the very real benefits of a culture of exercise and look for ways to make it happen.