From DAVID THOMAS
Your article ‘Teenage TV couch potatoes’ (Sports supplement, 9 October)
ascribes the reduction of the calorific intake of modern children to a concomitant
decrease in levels of physical activity; this seems naively to overlook
the energy expended passively in keeping warm. The prevalence of central
heating in homes and schools, the transport of children in heated cars,
perhaps even changes in the climate, must mean children are exposed to a
warmer environment than in the 1930s.
I hope John Durnin has the funding to continue his work over the period
when VAT is introduced on domestic fuel: he should see a noticeable effect,
providing of course the government doesn’t spoil the data by taxing bread
in the same budget.
David Thomas Edinburgh
