Fat-rich 'cafeteria diets' setting Canada's youth up for premature strokes, researchers warn

Fat- and calorie-rich junk-food diets are leading to typically middle-age diseases in children and setting them up for potential strokes when they're in their 30s and 40s, Canadian researchers are warning. What's more, the ongoing research suggests junk-food diets may alter the brain's anatomy, prematurely aging and damaging the network of blood vessels that supply it with oxygen. "If you go into any children's hospital in Canada today, and you ask, 'What’s going on with our young children?' they'll tell you that a lot of the kids they're seeing now are diabetic, they're hypertensive, they have altered lipids (blood fats)," said Dr. Dale Corbett, scientific director of the Heart and Stroke Foundation Centre for Stroke Recovery and professor of neurosciences at the University of Ottawa. "This used to happen in middle age and now it's happening in very young people. It's really a ticking time bomb." Close to one-third of children ages five to 17 - 1.6 million youth in Canada - are overweight or obese, according to a recent report from Statistics Canada

Growing debate over fat tax (Canada)

Will Canadians be healthier if they pay a few pennies of extra tax on junk food and pop? That's a hot question lately - particularly in Ottawa, where a number of prominent organizations have presented arguments to the standing committee on health this month. They're calling for reforms to Canada's rules on food taxes. Put simply, they want food taxes brought closer in line with Health Canada's recommendations on healthy eating. "Right now, it doesn't make any sense," says Manuel Arango, assistant director of health policy at the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. "For instance, one doughnut is taxed but if you buy six, they're not. That's perverse." Other groups that support tax changes to encourage healthier eating habits include the Canadian Medical Association, Centre for Science in the Public Interest and Quebec's Weight Coalition