Yellowknifelife: Tell me about the conferences.

Trish Fitzpatrick: A lot of interesting information came out of the conferences. About 28 per cent of Canadian boys are overweight. For girls, it's about 23 percent overweight.

Obesity has tripled from 1981 to 1996. It used to be 5 per cent of Canadian boys and girls. Now it's around 15 per cent.

Obesity and childhood obesity is an epidemic. And obesity is the greatest predictor towards diabetes. Canada has the third highest population of obese children in the world. We shouldn't fool ourselves that we're doing that much better, because the trends show we are getting fatter and becoming less healthy decade after decade.

Yellowknifelife: Will the problem continue to get worse?

TF: It's probably the public health issue at the moment that needs all of our attention. It's not just health professionals who need to worry about this. It's educators, government and communities because it's such an all encompassing issue.

If you're overweight or obese, you are less likely to be employed because of the way people perceive people who are overweight.

There's a lot of different areas where this comes into play. The costs of obesity to the health care system is $2.1 billion a year (up from $1.8 billion in 1997) That's enormous. Two thirds of Canadian children are not active enough for healthy growth and development. What we're going to see down the road -- if we don't find a solution -- is chronic diseases and illness increasing.

Type-2 diabetes is showing up in kids as young as 10. Something needs to happen, but how quickly it will happen is difficult to say.

There seems to be very little happening that would avoid a huge problem.

Yellowknifelife: Statistics in the North are usually more dismal compared to the rest of Canada. Is that true in this case?

TF: In the North, we still have time to act. From what we know, diabetes hasn't hit the first nations population in the North as it has in southern aboriginal populations. But we shouldn't relax. Diabetes is still quite high among the caucasian population.

What came out of the conference is that obesity follows poverty. They noticed a trend from west to east. So where people or populations are socially or economically disadvantaged, there seems to be a higher rate of obesity. And I think that's because the opportunities are afforded to people with low incomes. For example, you usually need money to play hockey.

In the North, we have so much winter. In Yellowknife, there is a lot of winter activity. But in the smaller communities I'm not so sure that's true. How could we make changes around that? More access during winter to facilities so families can be active indoors.

Yellowknifelife: Did you learn anything you didn't already know?

TF: One thing that struck me was how little unstructured play there is in children's lives these days and how that's leading to overweight and obese children. Children aren't outside playing, they are inside in front of the computer and TV. That was really brought home and it was something that I hadn't really considered before. I thought they've got programs in schools, activities they do with their friends. They have those, but it's not enough.

For children, physical activity has to be fun. If it's regimented, it's difficult for them to enjoy it.

Yellowknifelife: So they can't associate it with something they have to do, like a chore?

TF: I think you can have goals as a family -- perhaps doing something special as a family that's outdoor and active two or three times a week. But the regimentation, I would avoid. It needs to be fun if it's going to work.

Yellowknifelife: You say not enough is being done. What would you like to see happen?

TF: We need to create accesses for children, so they are able to use school facilities after school. We need places where families can do activities.

Are schools open in the evenings or before schools? How much is it encouraged in the family?

There are some interesting things that are happening.

Kids in the kitchen is a program that helps students build their cooking skills.

And no junk food policies in schools -- getting rid of pop, chips and chocolate bars in machines.

That doesn't seem to have reached all the schools yet. Chronic conditions such as obesity, cardiovascular diabetes, cancer are diseases that can be prevented and managed.

Yellowknifelife: Do you think junk food should be heavily taxed?

TF: I think those types of foods are expensive now anyway and people are still choosing them. It's just like cigarettes. We tax cigarettes more and more, we make them more expensive. Has that dissuaded people from choosing them? I'm not sure that it really has. I don't know if that would make a dent. But I caution when I say that because the message needs to be multifaceted.

Yellowknifelife: How do you approach weight issues with children?

TF: Don't target your child because it's usually a family problem. Children role model their parents so if they notice their parents are eating foods that are high in fat and sugar, that's what's going to be in the house and that's what children are going to eat.

If you target a child, you are saying it's only their problem. That's when an eating disorder can happen because blaming and shame is involved.

I would say the biggest indicator of childhood obesity is how is the family eating, are they active, are they eating healthy?

Yellowknifelife: Anything you want to add?

TF: Parents are the greatest role models. If you change your lifestyle, weight loss will follow. Don't let weight loss be the target goal, because that tends to put people on strange fad diets. Sure, they'll lose weight in the beginning, but if it's not part of a healthy habitual lifestyle change it's going to come back on and worse than before. So change slowly and gradually.

Don't try and do it all at once. You could get discouraged. Choose something for your family that's do-able.