More than one in five youths who applied for the Armed Forces in 2016 were overweight.
Chief, Håkon Meyer, at the Public Health Institute told P4 news that he is concerned about the development.
By 2016, 22.5% of the 17 year olds who met at the session were overweight. This is an increase since 2011.
Meyer indicated that overweight youth can have lower self-esteem and become stigmatised. In addition, obese people are more prone to illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
“If a whole population gets very heavy and it starts at an early age,these diseases can come earlier and to a greater extent,” he said to P4 news.
According to the figures from the National Institute of Public Health,mostly Finnmark’s population, 30.2%, were overweight, almost twice as many as in Oslo.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
