Added to this, more than half of women and about two-thirds of men in England are either overweight or obese.
But the most shocking development is the rise in childhood obesity which has doubled since 1982 and, associated with this, the reporting of type 2 diabetes among British adolescents. About 8.5% of six-year-olds and 15% of 15-year-olds are obese. Certainly we have become less active as a nation, but there is no question that the poor quality of our diets and most worrying, of our children's diets is a major factor.
We discovered that children were eating hardly any fruit or vegetables, but consuming cheap meat products and a regular diet of crisps and chocolate when Which? asked school children to keep food diaries. The school meals were repetitive and read like a fast food menu.
With the hectic lifestyles we lead and our changing relationship with food eating out more, eating more ready meals, and our desire for easy-to-find healthy options for example we have become far more reliant on the food industry.
Sadly, we have also become much more open to exploitation. The Consumers' Association (CA) has long been focusing on some of the dishonest labelling and misleading marketing that is ever-present on supermarket shelves. Just when we started to get the message about low fat, we saw an explosion in the number of misleading % fat', fat-free' and light' claims appearing on packaging.
Now that we are getting the idea about fruit and vegetables we are seeing foods high in sugar and salt promoted as contributing to our daily portions. Apparently, there's no such thing as a good food or a bad food, just good diets and bad diets.
However, when an increasing number of products, and in all too many cases ones high in fat, sugar and salt, make health claims or are fortified with vitamins and minerals to encourage us to eat more of them, this doesn't wash.
Marketing and promotional methods are becoming ever-more sophisticated and underhand. Just look at the recent Cadbury's scheme linking school sports equipment to purchase of chocolate bars and presented in the name of corporate social responsibility! When we have top athletes and role models brought in to extol the health benefits of chocolate consumption, what hope is there?
Informed choice has been a cornerstone of consumer policy. For too long we have heard that government shouldn't get involved in nutrition, it's a matter of choice if we want to eat a high fat diet then that's up to us. But how can this be justified when we are talking about children? The incidence of obesity speaks for itself and the broader societal implications in terms of chronic diseases (occurring at an increasingly younger age) and quality of life are almost unthinkable.
Something has to change in this climate where government healthy eating messages have become subsumed by a barrage of advertising and marketing campaigns promoting foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt. The solution is certainly a greater and more co-ordinated government role.
Ultimately however, it is the food industry that has enormous influence over our food choices. So stop misrepresenting the evidence that we need to reduce our fat, sugar and salt intake, take some responsibility and do something to reverse the depressing burden we, but most importantly children, face from chronic diseases.
{{COMMENT - GUEST }}
But the most shocking development is the rise in childhood obesity which has doubled since 1982 and, associated with this, the reporting of type 2 diabetes among British adolescents. About 8.5% of six-year-olds and 15% of 15-year-olds are obese. Certainly we have become less active as a nation, but there is no question that the poor quality of our diets and most worrying, of our children's diets is a major factor.
We discovered that children were eating hardly any fruit or vegetables, but consuming cheap meat products and a regular diet of crisps and chocolate when Which? asked school children to keep food diaries. The school meals were repetitive and read like a fast food menu.
With the hectic lifestyles we lead and our changing relationship with food eating out more, eating more ready meals, and our desire for easy-to-find healthy options for example we have become far more reliant on the food industry.
Sadly, we have also become much more open to exploitation. The Consumers' Association (CA) has long been focusing on some of the dishonest labelling and misleading marketing that is ever-present on supermarket shelves. Just when we started to get the message about low fat, we saw an explosion in the number of misleading % fat', fat-free' and light' claims appearing on packaging.
Now that we are getting the idea about fruit and vegetables we are seeing foods high in sugar and salt promoted as contributing to our daily portions. Apparently, there's no such thing as a good food or a bad food, just good diets and bad diets.
However, when an increasing number of products, and in all too many cases ones high in fat, sugar and salt, make health claims or are fortified with vitamins and minerals to encourage us to eat more of them, this doesn't wash.
Marketing and promotional methods are becoming ever-more sophisticated and underhand. Just look at the recent Cadbury's scheme linking school sports equipment to purchase of chocolate bars and presented in the name of corporate social responsibility! When we have top athletes and role models brought in to extol the health benefits of chocolate consumption, what hope is there?
Informed choice has been a cornerstone of consumer policy. For too long we have heard that government shouldn't get involved in nutrition, it's a matter of choice if we want to eat a high fat diet then that's up to us. But how can this be justified when we are talking about children? The incidence of obesity speaks for itself and the broader societal implications in terms of chronic diseases (occurring at an increasingly younger age) and quality of life are almost unthinkable.
Something has to change in this climate where government healthy eating messages have become subsumed by a barrage of advertising and marketing campaigns promoting foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt. The solution is certainly a greater and more co-ordinated government role.
Ultimately however, it is the food industry that has enormous influence over our food choices. So stop misrepresenting the evidence that we need to reduce our fat, sugar and salt intake, take some responsibility and do something to reverse the depressing burden we, but most importantly children, face from chronic diseases.
{{COMMENT - GUEST }}
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