OUR children should be looking ahead to a long and healthy life. Medical advances ought to ensure that this generation lives longer than any of its predecessors.

Yet too many youngsters are already eating and idling their way to an early grave.

Thousands of children in North Yorkshire are not merely fat, but obese. And, in the most extreme cases, the primary care trust is now prepared to operate.

If nothing else brings home the gravity of our child health nightmare, this frightening development does.

Surgery is always a last resort. Every operation carries risks. Doctors will only consider putting youngsters under the knife if there is no other way to save their lives.

But it needn't come to this. There is so much more we can do for our children before we staple their stomachs or knot their insides.

People get fat because they eat too much and they don't exercise enough. Schools have already made progress in getting their own menu in order, thanks largely to Jamie Oliver. The National Curriculum should now place more emphasis on teaching healthy eating and on PE.

Just as important is to educate parents. They must learn that allowing their children to eat junk food and vegetate in front of their computer is seriously damaging their health.

Kids need to get out into the fresh air, and there's no shortage of that in this part of the world. Instead of complaining about children playing games in the backstreets, the rest of us should cheer the sight.

And we should also applaud Abi Nelson, who has lost three-and-a-half stone in her first two teenage years. Her story proves that kids can go from fat to fit without a general anaesthetic.

Updated: 10:51 Thursday, March 23, 2006