Obese Britain 2015.pdf

Back in the halcyon days of early 2004 the
Labour government blissfully set a target
of halting the year on year rise of obesity
in children under the age of 11 by 2010.
Even in early 2007 it spoke excitedly
of the enormous progress that had been made
towards achieving the goal as a result of its highlycoordinated
approach to tackle the problem. But
the excitement was short lived. By October of that
year the Foresight Report, with its dire predictions
for UK obesity by 2050, changed everything.
Overnight the 2010 target was quietly dropped
and a new, softer target was set for 2020. Without
announcing any new programme Labour fondly
hoped to position the UK as the first major nation
to reverse the rising tide of obesity with the initial
focus on overweight children. The aim was that
by 2020, their weights would revert back to 2000
levels. Really?
With 2020 now only four and a half years away
the target might still be achieved however if a “
revolution “ called for by Simon Stevens, head of the
NHS, is taken up by the new government. Without
such a revolution in the Whitehall’s attitude towards
obesity, Mr Stevens believes, the financial stability
of the entire health service will be at risk. That
sounds like a crisis, but observing the immediate
aftermath of the May 7th election one wouldn’t have
guessed it. Whilst acknowledging that questions
hanging over the political future of the UK and its
future with Europe may have had to be urgently
considered, there was scant evidence that Downing
St showed any urgency about obesity. In fact, it
took four whole days before the confirmation that
Jane Ellison would remain in post as Public Health
Minister and that it might be business as usual at
the Department of Health. The delay served both
to underline Whitehall’s generation-long lack of
commitment to public health and that Stevens’
message cannot have been properly understood by
No 10. Disaster. How many times does it have to
be stated that, though obesity by itself may not be
an expensive disease, the cost of diseases triggered
by it – diabetes, heart disease, some cancers and
the rest – are crippling?
If it is to be business as usual, that’s a far cry
from “ revolution “ and doing nothing out of the
ordinary is not an option. Stevens has to be listened
to and whatever is on his shopping list has to be
seriously considered at Cabinet level. In a sense,
the Department of Health may even be superfluous
since Local Government is now technically in
charge of sorting out obesity. Though town halls
had to accept this responsibility two years ago
under Andrew Lansley’s ill judged NHS reforms,
they seem more up for a revolutionary job than
anyone in Westminster. They are already quite
clear what they need to deliver their part of the
sea-change, their price is £1bn and they should
get it. The money is a fifth of the income raised
on sweets and sugary drinks VAT and alcohol duty
and would properly supplement the pitiful funding
that they currently receive from the Treasury. The
sum total would allow local councillors to respond
to the specific health needs of the communities
they know best and would be spent particularly on
preventative measures.
Though that might upset many obesity clinicians
who think that prevention already gets too much
cash, its fighting talk to the Stevens who rues the
billions being spent on surgery and treatment when
sizeable amounts should be spent in trying to
stop people from getting fat in the first place. This
therefore brings up the issue of millions of children
whose health, says Stevens, is being put at risk by
our inaction to protect them from an obesogenic
society. The associations representing the nation’s
220,000 doctors would agree with him. In the
opinion of the Royal College of General Practitioners
[RCGP] childhood obesity is a “ state of emergency
“ demanding a COBRA-style emergency committee
to overcome it. The RCGP is joined by the Academy
of Royal Medical Colleges in demanding that a tax
is immediately put on sugary drinks or, at the very
least, a 20% levy is trialled for a year. Anyone
feeling reassured by government that childhood
obesity is levelling out and therefore than a tax
isn’t warranted should take a look at December’s
National Child Measurement programme statistics.
They show that every weight metric is still on the
increase and, worse still, the level of obesity in the
country’s most deprived areas is double that in the
least deprived. It is criminal that 22.5% of primary
school entrants and 33.5% of secondary school
entrants are overweight or obese and that 37.5%
of 15yr-olds are now outside what is regarded as a
healthy weight.
Less than healthy food, and its inappropriate
marketing, is as lethal as real coke and energy drinks
in the view of the doctors and strict limits should be
imposed on the levels of fat, salt or sugar stuffed
into it. “ An entire generation could be destroyed
by a diet of junk food and fizzy drinks “ was the
accusation written into an open letter to England’s
Chief Medical Officer last year and a strategy to
stop the destruction action should be already in
draft form somewhere. The 2020 target might be
achieved if it is. The child conceived to-day and
going to school in five year’s time within the healthy
BMI range could be fact and not wishful thinking if,
together, both central and local government got a
grip. The crucial first 1000 days of a child’s life,
roughly the period from when the baby is planned
to its 2nd birthday, should be at the centre of the
revolution and could overturn the lack of attention
to children by successive governments over the
last two decades. This article is not the place to
itemise all the issues that need to be addressed but
proper oversight of women throughout pregnancy,
a programme to encourage breastfeeding and
appropriate weaning, the shake-up of first foods
and fast foods and education in the responsibilities
of parenthood would be a good start. If you
believe yourself to be a perfect parent you may well
want now to send an outraged complaint to Obese
Britain but the evidence shows that finding perfect
parents is getting more difficult by the minute in
to-day’s society.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tam Fry
Spokesman for the National Obesity
Forum and a frequent broadcaster
on the issue of obesity, talks about
the what the new government must
do in order to tackle the rising issue
of obesity in the UK
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