EVERY parent will tell you that, sometimes, you just have to opt for an easy life and give in to your child’s demands.

When it comes to food, taking the path of least resistance can often make the difference between a desperately-needed period of calm and quiet and a fractious, ill-tempered and draining impasse.

Those pressures become all the greater when a child refuses to eat healthily and every meal-time becomes a battleground over the latest fat-laden, high calorie, sugary fad they’ve seen on television or heard about in the playground.

Encouraging children to eat well can be a huge and difficult challenge for many parents at any time but it is made more difficult when those children are reminded constantly of all the less-than-good-for-you alternatives available.

The damage that eating too much of the wrong food can do to a child was spelled out graphically in a new report released this week by the World Health Organisation to mark World Obesity Day.

The Ending Childhood Obesity report, from a new study by the WHO and Imperial College, London, showed there are ten times as many obese children and adolescents (aged five to 19) across the world as there were in 1975.

Their research, published in The Lancet medical journal, pulled together data from 31.5 million children and teenagers who took part in more than 2,000 studies.

Between 1975 and 2016 the number of obese boys in the world went up from six million to 74 million, while a similar trend for girls showed an increase from five to 50 million.

Girls in the UK had the sixth highest obesity rate in Europe, while boys came 18th on the list.

In 1975, three per cent of girls in the UK were classified as obese, a total of 200,000. By 2016 their numbers had risen to 510,000, or 9.4 per cent. The percentage of boys who were obese rose from 2.4 per cent to 10.9 per cent, while their numbers increased from 160,000 to 620,000.

That national trend has been largely mirrored in Bradford where, says Professor John Wright, a third of our children now leave primary school either obese or overweight.

Prof Wright is the chief investigator with the Born in Bradford (BIB) project which is tracking the health and wellbeing of more than13,500 children, and their parents, born at Bradford Royal Infirmary between March 2007 and December 2010, to understand the many influences that shape our lives.

“Obesity is a sleeping giant,” says Prof Wright. “If affects everyone – physically and psychologically – and tracks all the way from childhood to adulthood leading to early deaths.”

BIB is one of the largest research studies in the world and its findings are being used to develop new and practical ways to work with families and health professionals to improve the health and wellbeing of our communities.

Needless to say, childhood obesity is very high on their agenda.

Establishing healthy eating in pregnancy and early childhood is very important for healthy growth and development as well as preventing obesity, says Prof Wright.

Poor eating patterns developed early can continue, and have been shown to relate to increased risk of obesity, heart disease, cancer and diabetes in adulthood.

The WHO report’s findings have led the organisation to call for urgent action around the world to tackle childhood obesity.

It urges governments to limit the marketing of unhealthy high-calorie and sugar-laden food products and drinks aimed at children.

It also recommends sugary drink taxes, such as the one due to be introduced in the UK next year, clear front-of-package labelling listing food contents, and banning the provision of unhealthy food, snacks and drinks in schools.

The report calls for disadvantaged communities to be given better access to healthy foods and for measures to ensure that physical activity is part of the “daily routine and curriculum” in schools and other child-care facilities.

Prof Fiona Bull, of the WHO working group that spent two years compiling the report, said: “We need to turn our concern into action – more action and more widespread action.

“We are surrounded by environments which market unhealthy, high fat, high sugar, high calorie food. That’s what’s on the TV, that’s what’s promoted at bus stops, and that’s what children are seeing all day, every day.

“The promotion and the price and the specials, the two-for-ones, the super-sizing – these are the problems that drive overweight and obesity, over-consumption.”

Prof Wright says advertising is definitely a major factor in the growth of childhood obesity: “Marketing works for a particular reason – it is very effective in increasing consumption.”

The 18 top-spending crisp, confectionery and sugary drinks brands are paying out more than £143 million a year on advertising their products, according to analysis by the Obesity Health Alliance, while the NHS spends an estimated £38 million a year on weight loss surgery as part of £5.1 billion on obesity-related conditions.

The OHA is calling on the Government to close existing loopholes to restrict children’s exposure to junk food marketing across all media, including on TV prior to the 9pm watershed, citing a recent study by Cancer Research UK that found that such adverts make children “hungry” and “tempted”.

The food industry can change, as its response to the forthcoming sugary drink tax – described as “first steps but very positive” by Prof Wright – illustrates.

Dr Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at Public Health England, said: “It’s taken many years for us to reach this point and change will not happen overnight.

“England is at the forefront of addressing childhood obesity – our sugar reduction programme and the Government’s sugar levy are world-leading but this is just the beginning of a long journey to tackle the challenge of a generation.

“The evidence is clear that just telling people what to do won’t work.

“Whilst education and information are important, deeper actions are needed to help us lower calorie consumption and achieve healthier diets.”

It’s a big part of the focus of Born in Bradford which Prof Wright says is working towards designing a city that supports people to become less obese, from making it easier to take physical activity, such as walking to school, to reducing the temptation to eat badly by managing the location of fast food outlets.

“The issues are very complex,” he says. “But through the work of BIB and Public Health England, Bradford has the potential to be a real trailblazer.”