Experts now believe that inactivity is as dangerous as smoking 20 cigarettes a day, so it is a disturbing thought that today's children use up 25 per cent fewer calories than they did in the 1930s. If their lifestyle isn't changed, these couch potato kids will be susceptible to heart attacks at an early age and may cause a major national health crisis in years to come.

Justin Wallace, who works for St Edmundsbury Borough Council leisure services department, was so shocked by statistics such as these that he made this programme, The Kids Aren't Alright. In it he charts the impact of modern sedentary lifestyles not just on young people but on all our health prospects.

Wallace, who has two children himself, describes today's young people as being "battery-reared rather than free-range", partly because of the increased use of cars but also as a result of parents' fear of street crime and violence. In little more than a generation, we have taught our children to watch television rather than go out, and to expect danger from all strangers and strange environments. The combination, he says, is a recipe for trouble.

Polly Toynbee page 22
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