WELLNESS-LOVING GEN Z ARE BIGGER THAN PREVIOUS GENERATIONS AMID FEARS THEY RISK BEING 'LEFT BEHIND'
Health-conscious Gen Z are far bigger than previous generation despite their fondness for wellness, figures have revealed.
Often referred to as Generation Sensible for their focus on healthy living and apparent lack of interest in alcohol, research has suggested young people also smoke less and take fewer drugs.
But according to leading think tank The King's Fund, data has shown a 'steady increase' over the past two decades in the proportion of 16- to 24-year-olds who are now obese.
Danielle Jeferies, an analyst at the think tank, said the figure stood at 37 per cent in 2022, up from the 31 per cent logged in 2002.
The analysis also found Gen Z was also 'struggling' to access support for mental health conditions or disability because 'services have not kept up with demand'.
Despite the Government's pledge to create the 'healthiest generation of children ever', the King's Fund warned that Gen Z 'must not become the left-behind generation'.
Childhood obesity has been a growing issue for years, with easy access to fast food, more screen time and sedentary lifestyles blamed for spiralling rates in some parts of the UK.
In October, a raft of long-awaited anti-obesity measures, including a ban on free refills of fizzy drinks in restaurants and cafés, came into force in England designed to curb the growing crisis.
The crackdown will be followed in January by a ban on online adverts for unhealthy food and drink, and restrictions on TV advertising before 9 pm.
Ms Jeferies said: 'Recent measures to improve the health and well-being of children, such as reducing the amount of sugar in drinks, extending free school meals and lifting the two-child cap are powerful steps to improving children's lives.
'However, while these are laudable efforts to help turn the tide on the health of Generation Alpha, there needs to be a greater focus on older children and those transitioning into adulthood.
'Gen Z must not become the left-behind generation, as without greater intervention, they too will feel the effects of poor health and well-being for the rest of their lives.'
Experts have also previously blamed tech-fuelled sedentary lifestyles and easier access to junk food for the rise in obesity among younger people.
Professor Iain Buchan, a public health expert from the University of Liverpool, said: 'Although we are more connected we are also more sedentary as everything is done sitting down, online, or fixed to a device.
'Our bodies didn't evolve to spend so little energy. We need to move around and interact physically and spend time disconnected in order to reflect.'
'Life has become so different in terms of pace and food has changed too: we now have unhealthy diets, with high fat, high salt and high sugar junk foods that provide rapid energy, and that's not good for health,' he said.
'We have created a quick fix environment that's all about short term pleasure and it's causing long-term pain.
'These problems have been baked into a generation and we're now seeing the effects of that. We see a rise in mental health problems, obesity and other diseases.'
According to the King's Fund's analysis, the proportion of 17 to 19-year-olds with a probable mental health disorder has more than doubled from 10 per cent in 2017 to 23 per cent in 2023.
And the proportion of 15 to 24-year-olds with a disability more than doubled between 2011 and 2021.
'There are signs that Gen Z could become increasingly disengaged with NHS services,' the think tank's report said.
People aged between 16 and 35 report 'poorer experiences' than older adults across a number of services including GP and hospital care, as well as urgent and emergency care and mental health services.
'To improve the health of younger generations, the Government either needs to re-engage Gen Z with NHS services, or health policy needs to increasingly look beyond the NHS to shift health outcomes,' it added.
A sobering report last year warned that Britain’s spiralling weight problem has fuelled a 39 per cent rise in type 2 diabetes among under-40s, with around 168,000 young adults now living with the disease.
Excess weight has also been linked to at least 13 types of cancer and is the second-biggest preventable cause of the disease in the UK, according to Cancer Research UK.
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