I'm going to try to unpack that.
Eating disorders have increased in prevalence, but they're still dwarfed by the incidence of unhealthy overweights and obesity. Mental health is hugely important. I would say that 80% of my practice deals with anxiety, depression, autism, and ADHD, so it's out there. It's a big cause of morbidity.
Looking at the temporal relationship between the increase in unhealthy weights in children and youth in Canada since, say, 1975, it's best explained by changes in the food environment, not in the mental health environment. That's not to say that mental health isn't extremely important. It is.
You also mentioned educating kids. We know that media literacy doesn't work. We know that kids are credulous. They tend to believe what they're told and they certainly would never guess that these colourful ads on TV are actually for foods that are unhealthy. I would disconnect those two.
The pursuit of better mental health care is vitally important, and it should begin with prenatal classes. It should begin with the parents. It's really, really important. That should proceed on a separate track and should be uncoupled from other efforts to improve the food environment.
I'm not disparaging the role of physical activity. As the speakers from Jumpstart and Participaction said, physical activity is so important for mental health and fitness, but it's not the major lever to affect unhealthy weights.