Children are getting so fat that they may be the first generation to die before their parents. To- day’s youngsters are already falling prey to potential killers such as diabetes because of their weight.(46) Fatty fast-food diets combined with sitting lifestyles dominated by televisions and computers could mean kids will die tragically young, says Professor Andrew Prentice, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. At the same time, the shape of the human body is going through a huge evolutionary shift because adults are getting so fat.Here in Britain, latest research shows that the average waist size for a man is 36-38in and may be 42-44in by 2032. This compares with only 32.6in in 1972. Women’s waists have grown from an average of 22in in 1920 to 24in in the Fifties and 30in now.One of the major reasons why children now are at greater risk is that we are getting fatter younger. In the UK alone, more than one million under-16s are classed as overweight or obese -- double the number in the mid-Eighties. One in ten four-year-olds are also medically classified as obese.The obesity pandemic -- an extensive epidemic -- which started in the US, has now spread to Europe, Australasia, Central America and the Middle East. (47) Many nations now record more than 20 percent of their population as clinically fat and well over half the population as overweight. (48) Prof. Prentice said the change in our shape has been caused by an oversupply of easily available high-energy foods combined with a dramatic drop in the energy we use as a result of technology developments.He is not alone in his concern. Only last week one medical journal revealed how obesity was fuelling a rise in cancer cases. Obesity also increases the risk factor for strokes and heart disease as well as diabetes. (49) An averagely overweight person’s lifespan is shortened by around nine years while a severely overweight person by many more.Prof. Prentice said: "So will parents outlive their children, as claimed recently by an American obesity specialist Yes, when the offspring become grossly obese. This is now becoming an alarmingly common occurrence in the US. (50) Such children and adolescents have a greatly reduced quality of life in terms of both their physical and psychosocial health. So say No to that doughnut and burger." Prof. Prentice said the change in our shape has been caused by an oversupply of easily available high-energy foods combined with a dramatic drop in the energy we use as a result of technology developments.