Childhood obesity crisis
Date published: 15 August 2018
A nationwide tax on sugary drinks has formed part of the government's obesity plan
Children in particular are encouraged to be more active than ever before, yet childhood obesity levels are worryingly on the increase.
In 2016, the government launched its 10-year childhood obesity plan, introducing a nationwide tax on sugary drinks in April this year, an age-limit on purchasing energy drinks, reducing children’s sugar intakes by at least 20% by 2020, clearer labelling and making school food healthier.
The plan also aims to introduce further measures to be consulted on before the end of 2018, including a 9pm watershed on television advertising of unhealthy food and drink, ban price promotions and ban price promotion by location, such as checkouts.
Closer to home, Rochdale Borough Council also pledged to tackle childhood obesity with a new campaign.
Andrea Fallon, the council’s director of public health, said: “Tacking childhood obesity is a major priority for the council and, working with our partners and local schools: we have a number of pioneering policies in place to improve the health and fitness of children.”
But is this all enough?
Deprivation
Rochdale has previously been named as one of the most deprived areas in England: obesity rates are highest for children from the most deprived areas and this is getting worse.
Children aged five and from the poorest income groups are twice as likely to be obese compared to their most well-off counterparts and by age 11, they are three times as likely.
The childhood obesity crisis
Bad eating habits begin in childhood.
Most children – as demonstrated earlier this year on the BBC One series Britain’s Fat Fight with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall – when asked to choose their weekly shopping without their parents, loaded up their baskets with sugary foods.
A voluntary front-of-pack traffic light labelling scheme now covers two thirds of products sold in the UK, making it easier to see the total fat, sugar and salt content of products.
In England, the revenue from the sugar levy will be invested in programmes to reduce obesity and encourage physical activity and balanced diets for school age children.
This includes doubling the Primary PE and Sport Premium and putting a further £10 million a year into school healthy breakfast clubs.
Under the government’s national child measurement programme, the weight and height of all children is measured when they start and leave primary school.
The latest data from Public Health England shows that almost one in four children (23.3%) aged 10-11 in the Rochdale borough is now classified as obese, the highest since records began.
Fast food nation
The local environment has a major influence on our behaviours and streets crowded with fast food outlets can influence our food choices – many of these currently have no or little nutrition information in-store.
Children exposed to these outlets, whether out with friends or on their way home from school, may find it more difficult to choose healthier options.
With 285 outlets, the number of takeaways in the Rochdale is one of the highest across Greater Manchester and in the north west.
In 2017, takeaways in Rochdale accounted for almost a third of the borough’s eateries (32.2%) – and it doesn’t stop there.
Rochdale also has some of the highest figures for each takeaway per 100,000 of the population: above the national average, ninth highest in the north west and 28th nationally.
Activity
There is strong evidence that regular physical activity is associated with numerous health benefits for children, with recommendations suggesting all children and young people should engage in moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity for at least 60 minutes every day.
Many schools already offer an average of two hours of PE or other physical activities per week. However, we need to do more to encourage children to be active every day.
Yet in Rochdale, our sporting facilities have also remained virtually unchanged for approximately 10 years, despite our high levels of takeaways.
Speaking in July, CEO of Link4Life, Andy King, requested for Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester support former Paralympic champion Tanni Grey-Thompson’s calls for the government to ‘save the NHS’ by transforming leisure centres into a preventative frontline service, a move which would benefit all generations.
It was estimated that the NHS in England spent £5.1 billion on overweight and obesity-related ill-health in 2014/15.
According to Health Club Management, speaking at a Local Government Association Annual Conference in Birmingham, current ukactive chair Ms Grey-Thompson said: “The challenges around physical activity are really serious. We have a generation of young people who are more likely to die before their parents, obesity rates for young people are on the rise, we've got an ageing population and the NHS is in a really challenging position.
"If we don't do something to get the nation active, there will be really serious consequences."
However, seventeen schools across the Rochdale borough have taken big strides towards improving their pupils’ health by doing a daily mile of walking, jogging or running.
The Daily Mile is a simple, free and fun initiative where children and adults run, jog or walk for fifteen minutes every day. In this time, most people will average a mile or more.
The future
Andrea Fallon added: “Reducing and preventing childhood obesity is everybody’s responsibility and thanks to initiatives like the daily mile, sugar smart borough (including ‘give up loving pop’) and our healthy heroes family we are ensuring local children are exercising more and supporting families to make healthy choices. Much has been achieved but there is still much to do and, through our healthy eating and exercise campaigns, we will continue to tackle childhood obesity across the borough.”
Childhood obesity: a plan for action
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