Obese Britain Summer 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 COBRAstyle
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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