By . Lucy Osborne . PUBLISHED: . 19:58 EST, 11 August 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 06:14 EST, 12 August 2013 . Millions of British children are shunning vegetables and watching too much television, creating a  generation who will die younger than their parents will, researchers have warned. The majority of five to 15-year-olds – some 80 per cent – are not eating the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, according to the study. However half of children in this age group indulge in soft drinks, chocolates or sweets every day, researchers found. Warning: Researchers fear that the millions of children who shun vegetables and watch too much television will die younger than their parents will (file picture) Recommended: The researchers called for a return to traditional outdoor activities (file picture) The researchers called for a return to traditional outdoor activities as they revealed on a typical Saturday or Sunday a quarter of children aged two to 15 spend at least six hours being inactive. Simon Gillespie, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation which conducted the study with the University of Oxford, said the findings were ‘simply unacceptable’. ‘These figures are a warning that many of our children are in grave danger of developing coronary heart disease in the future if they continue to live the same lifestyle,’ he said. Bad habits: The majority of five to 15-year-olds are not eating the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day . Teenagers seem to be worse than younger age groups, with around two in five 13-year-olds – 39 per cent of girls and 43 per cent of boys – drinking a soft drink every day. Almost half of boys and over a third of girls aged 13 also go without breakfast, as do almost a third of 11-year-olds. This figure is even higher among 15-year-olds, with 57 per cent of girls and 38 per cent of boys going without breakfast. Most girls and boys aged 13 do not do the recommended one hour of physical activity a day, compared with 20 per cent of 11-year-olds. And almost three-quarters of 13-year-olds watch at least two hours of TV on a weekday, as do 60 per cent of 11-year-old girls and 64 per cent of 11-year-old boys. The rise of this unhealthy generation will leave Britain unable to compete with other countries, the Prime Minister has warned. Mr Gillespie told the Times: ‘The healthier a nation is, the more efficient it is.’ He said he has seen some cases of high cholesterol in teenagers that ‘you would expect to see in a stereotypical sedentary truck driver eating a cooked breakfast every day’. Deaths from heart disease have fallen sharply in recent years, but Mr Gillespie said: ‘We’ve got a generation growing up which will buck that trend and potentially they will be the generation that live less long than the generation above them. ‘It really is as stark as that. If that isn’t a wake-up call, then what is? ‘Our expectations of what childhood is have to change,’ he said.  ‘When I was a child the expectation was that you would be outside. It’s not a question of turning back the clock, it’s a question of regaining that balance. We almost have to reset what we regard as moderation — moderation is not cutting down from two burgers a day to one, it’s cutting down to two burgers a week.’ The notion of exercise regimes involving gyms or gruelling jogs may well be intimidating for many of us. But surely a brief walk should not be too much for even the most hardened of couch potatoes to tackle. Yet according to a study, millions across the country cannot be coaxed – with nearly one in ten adults not managing to walk for even five minutes in the month before. The figure, from researchers at the University of Bristol, includes walking to work. Their snapshot also found the amount of other exercise done – such as swimming, biking and gym sessions – was ‘shockingly low’. It revealed that just over 8 per cent of adults who were well enough to walk had not managed to clock up five continuous minutes in four weeks leading up to being questioned. In one of the most comprehensive studies of physical fitness levels to be carried out in England, experts analysed annual surveys of adults, in which they were asked how much they exercised in the previous four weeks. As well as the low figures on walking, 88 per cent had not been swimming, 90 per cent had not used a gym and 20 per cent had only done minimal amounts of physical activity.
Majority of children not eating recommended quantity of their 'five a day'
Researchers call for return to outdoor activities to help tackle problem .
British Heart Foundation boss describes findings as 'unacceptable'
By . Lucy Osborne . PUBLISHED: . 19:58 EST, 11 August 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 06:14 EST, 12 August 2013 . Millions of British children are shunning vegetables and watching too much television, creating a  generation who will die younger than their parents will, researchers have warned. The majority of five to 15-year-olds – some 80 per cent – are not eating the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, according to the study. However half of children in this age group indulge in soft drinks, chocolates or sweets every day, researchers found. Warning: Researchers fear that the millions of children who shun vegetables and watch too much television will die younger than their parents will (file picture) Recommended: The researchers called for a return to traditional outdoor activities (file picture) The researchers called for a return to traditional outdoor activities as they revealed on a typical Saturday or Sunday a quarter of children aged two to 15 spend at least six hours being inactive. Simon Gillespie, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation which conducted the study with the University of Oxford, said the findings were ‘simply unacceptable’. ‘These figures are a warning that many of our children are in grave danger of developing coronary heart disease in the future if they continue to live the same lifestyle,’ he said. Bad habits: The majority of five to 15-year-olds are not eating the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day . Teenagers seem to be worse than younger age groups, with around two in five 13-year-olds – 39 per cent of girls and 43 per cent of boys – drinking a soft drink every day. Almost half of boys and over a third of girls aged 13 also go without breakfast, as do almost a third of 11-year-olds. This figure is even higher among 15-year-olds, with 57 per cent of girls and 38 per cent of boys going without breakfast. Most girls and boys aged 13 do not do the recommended one hour of physical activity a day, compared with 20 per cent of 11-year-olds. And almost three-quarters of 13-year-olds watch at least two hours of TV on a weekday, as do 60 per cent of 11-year-old girls and 64 per cent of 11-year-old boys. The rise of this unhealthy generation will leave Britain unable to compete with other countries, the Prime Minister has warned. Mr Gillespie told the Times: ‘The healthier a nation is, the more efficient it is.’ He said he has seen some cases of high cholesterol in teenagers that ‘you would expect to see in a stereotypical sedentary truck driver eating a cooked breakfast every day’. Deaths from heart disease have fallen sharply in recent years, but Mr Gillespie said: ‘We’ve got a generation growing up which will buck that trend and potentially they will be the generation that live less long than the generation above them. ‘It really is as stark as that. If that isn’t a wake-up call, then what is? ‘Our expectations of what childhood is have to change,’ he said.  ‘When I was a child the expectation was that you would be outside. It’s not a question of turning back the clock, it’s a question of regaining that balance. We almost have to reset what we regard as moderation — moderation is not cutting down from two burgers a day to one, it’s cutting down to two burgers a week.’ The notion of exercise regimes involving gyms or gruelling jogs may well be intimidating for many of us. But surely a brief walk should not be too much for even the most hardened of couch potatoes to tackle. Yet according to a study, millions across the country cannot be coaxed – with nearly one in ten adults not managing to walk for even five minutes in the month before. The figure, from researchers at the University of Bristol, includes walking to work. Their snapshot also found the amount of other exercise done – such as swimming, biking and gym sessions – was ‘shockingly low’. It revealed that just over 8 per cent of adults who were well enough to walk had not managed to clock up five continuous minutes in four weeks leading up to being questioned. In one of the most comprehensive studies of physical fitness levels to be carried out in England, experts analysed annual surveys of adults, in which they were asked how much they exercised in the previous four weeks. As well as the low figures on walking, 88 per cent had not been swimming, 90 per cent had not used a gym and 20 per cent had only done minimal amounts of physical activity.
cent – are not eating the recommended five Researchers fear that the millions of children a return to traditional outdoor activities (file of the British Heart Foundation which conducted findings were ‘simply unacceptable’. ‘These