Tackling unhealthy eating

In my previous post I mentioned that the coalition government will target ‘unhealthy habits’ in this new year to try and improve health nationally and this would consequently lead to treatment savings within the NHS.

This is something which has featured in the news this week (week one of the new year!), the ‘unhealthy habit’ being unhealthy eating, one of the main causes of obesity. “Obesity costs the NHS £5bn each year and the latest figures from the Department of Health show that the number of children who are overweight or obese doubles during their time at primary school.”

‘Healthy’ food can often be the more expensive option and therefore access to such food in certain areas or certain families can be difficult and limited. As a result certain food firms are involved in a recent scheme by ‘Change4Life’ and offers on their food products will be available at more than 1000 Asda, Aldi and Co-Operative food stores across the UK.

Although a “responsibility deal” is currently in place (as well as schemes such as Change4life) and has managed to improve food content and labelling, a labour representative has asked whether a legal limit on the amount of fat, sugar and salt should be established. Especially in foods aimed at children given the statistic above for example. Essentially, is the current voluntary approach doing enough to regulate what our food contains or is it time for the introduction of legislation?

Here are five potential food 'targets' that could be affected by such legislation if it were introduced:

1.) Breakfast cereals - reduce sugar content

2.) Fruit juice - not pure fruit juice but the ones which are not pure fruit juice and can have large           amounts of sugar added

3.) Ready meals - stop the addition of too much salt in certain brands

4.) Crisps - reduce salt levels

5.) Biscuits, cookies and cakes - rethink with regards to fat levels

To give a more detailed example, the party says measures could include a 30% cap on sugar content in cereals aimed at children – significantly lower than in several well-known brands.

To give an example of legislation elsewhere, in French schools all food and drink is controlled, following the introduction of these measures studies have shown that the number of overweight children have decreased from 18.1% in 2000 to 15.5% in 2007. How telling is this statistic? Is the decrease really that significant and what changes have occurred since 2007...

Finally a few thoughts on the idea, for example is such a scheme realistically controllable? Would legislation have its desired effect, just because the healthy food is more readily available does not mean it will be purchased by families and would the products be affordable for all families? Could the money be invested elsewhere, perhaps education or accessible exercise facilities? Compulsory education on healthy eating with examples of which meals are 'healthy' in all secondary schools in the UK?

Source: BBC Health News