Health
The Ignored National Obesity Solution : EXERCISE! On the radio today I heard something that frankly I find ridiculous, indeed in my opinion mildly offensive, pathetic and a symptom of the shallow and uninspiring approach to the obesity crisis in young people from those who have positions of high influence. The idea, as part of a suite of ideas from the outgoing Professor Dame Sally Davies, was to put forward a plan to ban food on public transport to stop young people or indeed any people snacking unhealthily! Yes, it was to ban people from eating! Children and adults. What freedoms will we soon have left? What encouragement and motivation for taking personal and family responsibility for our health? The Chief Medical Officer proposed that the ban would “Prohibit eating and drinking on urban public transport, except fresh water, breastfeeding and for medical conditions.” Now before I go any further, let me tell you this… I would rather be arrested and locked up than allow anyone to tell me not to feed my baby boy some blueberries on a bus or train if he is hungry. I dare anyone to try and stop me. The full list of headline points in the plan from the outgoing CMO are as follows; • Phasing out all marketing, advertising and sponsorship of unhealthy food and drink. •
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Banning food and drink on local transport with exceptions for water, breast-feeding and medical conditions.
D I S C O V E R I N G
Professor Dame Sally Davies
• Free water refills to be available at all food outlets, transport stations and public sector buildings. • Regular car-free weekends across the country to encourage physical activity.
• Adding VAT to unhealthy food products that are currently zero- rated, such as cakes. • Capping calories in food served out-of-the home to combat rising portion sizes.
• Changing planning rules to make it harder to open fast-food takeaways.
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• Extending the sugar tax to include milk-based drinks.
• All nurseries, registered childminders and schools to
T H E
Deepings
Consider plain packaging - as for tobacco - for junk food, if firms fail to reduce sugar, fat and salt in their products quickly enough.
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