Adoring mothers are pushing their kids into early graves. In fact, increasing numbers of parents will outlive their own children.

The UK has achieved a terrifying statistic: the three-year old couch potato. Recent figures show that young people, especially in Scotland, are fatter than virtually anywhere else in the world bar Italy and Malta. Yes, they are fatter here than in the Big Apple.

It starts in the cradle and ends in an early grave. One in five children in nurseries and toddlers' groups is already overweight, and it gets worse. Even at the age of three, it's 16 per cent, at eight it's nearly one in four, and by 12, a horrifying 33 per cent of overweight kids is classed as obese. That means they weigh at least 20 per cent more than they should.

Fatness kills. It leads directly to high blood pressure, heart disease and strokes. It is leading to a sudden surge in Type II diabetes which used to be associated with middle age, obesity and lack of exercise. Now teenagers are developing the condition, with signs of insulin production slowing down in the face of dietary and weight pressure. According the Department of Health, at least 58 per cent of these cases are directly attributable to carrying too much weight. Diabetes is the biggest cause of blindness in the western world and it can lead to kidney failure, gangrene - which leads to limb amputations - and it increases the likelihood of heart disease.