Friday, August 14, 2009

Update from Scotland

Glasgow is the "laziest city in the UK" according to the findings of a national health poll. Researchers questioned 2,049 people during May for the not-for-profit organisation, Nuffield Health. About 75% of Glaswegians who responded admitted they failed to exercise at least three times a week. This figure was 67% for people from Birmingham and Southampton, with London just behind on 66%, Bristol on 64% and Leeds and Newcastle on 62%.
The survey also suggested that some Britons were so lazy they would rather watch a television programme they do not like than get out of their chair to change channels. About one in six people questioned said if their remote control was broken, they would continue watching the same channel rather than get up. More than one third of those questioned, 36%, said they would not run to catch a bus. Of the 654 respondents with children, 64% said they were often too tired to play with them. This led the report to conclude that it was "no wonder" one in six UK children was classified as obese before they start school. Of the 456 dog owners quizzed, more than half (52%) said they could not be bothered to walk their pet. Three-quarters (73%) of people said they regularly have too little energy at the end of the day for passion with their partner.
Dr Sarah Dauncey of Nuffield Health said, "If we don't start to take control of this problem, a whole generation will become too unfit to perform even the most rudimentary of tasks."

(I know there's already a lot of info circulating on this subject, everyone's heard it all before, but I found this series of questions and answers particularly touching/tragic - a city where fat kids and fat dogs are left to languish in corners while sexless, passionless people watch TV shows they don't enjoy)