While commemorating World Heart Day last week, experts reported and warned against the increased number of people, both adults, and children, suffering from Cardiovascular diseases in Uganda.
The doctors revealed that one in every four adults has a heart-related complication while one in a hundred babies born carry a heart disease. According to experts, heart diseases contribute to over 9 percent of deaths in the country, and 17.9 million people per year globally.
The Fatboy Show presenter Olive Najjuma surmised that many children, especially in urban homes, hardly play around yet it is their form of exercise.
“In most homes, children are sedentary most of the time. They watch movies, play video games, never get out of the house to interact with others, and do not exercise,” she said.
Fatboy added that parents have normalized feeding their children junk food. “I have noticed this with single mums; in the evenings, you can go to a restaurant and find a mum with her two or three children at a table filled with burgers, fries and all their kids are eating,” he said.
Olive argued that both parents, under different circumstances feed their children junk, sometimes to keep them busy while attending to work or anything else, yet it is very unhealthy.
“Let the kids eat much better food. If a parent can not find time to prepare food, at least direct the kitchen maid. Even if children may not like the food, feeding them junk might compromise their health in the long run,” Fatboy advised.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive, and Sarah every weekday from 6 am to 10 am on RX Radio.