Rolling their sleeves up every other Thursday afternoon a group of 12 teenagers take their seats in the Senate chamber and try to tackle the problem of child obesity in Bermuda. Appointed by Premier Ewart Brown, the National Youth Council said the problem is a real one.

In an interview with Body & Soul members said they see lots of overweight and obese children in their schools.

"I see it as a rising problem because more and more people are using convenience foods," said member Elisabeth Blakendal.

But quite apart from how their counterparts are becoming overweight, members expressed concern that a double standard seemed to be at play as many of their teachers are overweight.

"We have teachers that have good self-esteem and are confident but they are overweight and obese," said one member. "We need to see them trying to get to a healthy weight too.

"We even have PE teachers that are overweight. That's not right," said another member. "We have a PE teacher that tells us that she had to do what we are doing when she was our age, so she doesn't have to do it anymore. She gets in her car and drives next to us when we are doing cross-country. I don't think that's right," she added.

Most council members also felt that MPs should lead the way and although strong in these views they admitted they had no plans to address the matter with teachers or MPs. Instead they said, they would concentrate their energies on developing programmes to bring children to their healthy weights.

In fact the group has spent most of its meetings hearing from local experts on the topic.

Local physician Stanley James is chairman of the National Youth Council and said the students have had presentations from Healthy Schools Coordinator Marie Beach, Health Council CEO, Dr. Jennifer Attride-Stirling, Ministry of Education Director of Accountability and Standards, Dr. Lou Matthews, Education Officer, Darrin Lewis and the Education Minister, El James.

Armed with disturbing statistics like two out of five local children are obese, the council was eager that programmes be adopted as soon as possible.

It plans to recommend to the Premier that weight loss and fitness camps receive some funding. In particular the council plans to team with Global Arts Entertainment this year in the operation of its Camp Cardio for teens.

Additionally an Island-wide televised weight loss challenge for high school students is being worked on.

Dr. James said the council will lobby schools to be compliant with the Healthy Schools guidelines, which among other things, details the types of foods that can be in school vending machines and offered in school cafeterias.

"We want to get schools graded as being healthy," he said. "We want the amount of time spent on PE increased to a least once a day."

Dr. James said the council also wants young people to increase the amount of physical activity they get and to choose physical recreational activities rather than sedentary ones.

In addition to proper diet and nutrition Dr. James said the council would lobby for programmes that bring families together and support them emotionally and socially.

"We want to build a healthy community," he said.