Obesity threatens Aussie kids' life span (AAP)

The life expectancy of Australian children will drop by two years if an obesity epidemic goes unchecked, the nation's preventative health taskforce has warned in its inaugural report. Turning the tide of obesity, slashing daily smoking rates to nine per cent or less and cutting risky drinking by almost a third by 2020 are some of the targets proposed by the National Preventative Health Taskforce in its discussion paper released on Friday. Almost one third of the nation's illness is caused by lifestyle factors including smoking, obesity, risky drinking and poor diet, and the associated high blood pressure and cholesterol, according to the discussion paper. In only 15 years, from 1990 to 2005, the number of fat Australian adults jumped by a staggering 2.8 million. Currently, almost one quarter of children are overweight or... [read full story]