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Posts Tagged ‘Obesity’

Strategies to Tackle Obesity Not Working says Medical Professionals

Monday, April 16th, 2012

Doctors hit out at the Government’s strategy to tackle obesity as they launch their own campaign to tackle Britain’s junk food & obesity trouble.

The body that represents all the doctors, surgeons, psychiatrists and paediatricians in England, the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges (AoMRC) said that because measures to tackle the fat problem are not working, there was a “huge crisis waiting to happen”.

24% of women and 22% of men in the United Kingdom are now classed as obese – the highest in Europe.

Experts predict that by 2030, the problem of obesity with soar, with 43% of women becoming obese and 48% of men becoming obese.

The body will run a three month investigation to look at the action people can take, as well as how sponsorship and advertising can have an impact.

The AoMRC are asking for a ban on McDonalds advertising at big sporting events e.g. the Olympic Games and wants a ‘fat tax’ on the unhealthiest foods to be put in place.

They are also demanding fast food free zones around schools to be brought in.

Professor Terence Stephenson, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, is the vice chairman of the AoMRC, who will lead the campaign.

Professor Stephenson said that the campaign would see medical professionals coming together in an unprecedented way. He said, “Our starting point is the collective desire to ensure the healthcare profession is doing all it can to detect, treat, manage – and ultimately prevent – obesity.

“It is unprecedented that the medical royal colleges and faculties have come together on such a high-profile public health issue.”

He said that the current strategies to work on obesity were now working.

He added, “We recognise the huge crisis waiting to happen and believe that current strategies to reduce obesity are failing to have a significant impact.

“Speaking with one voice we have a more of a chance of preventing generation after generation falling victim to obesity-related illnesses and death.”

The campaign will look for the views of local authorities, healthcare professionals, charities, education providers, the public and campaign groups, in the form of oral and written evidence.

The first report, which is due to be published this year, will offer recommendations for how the medical professionals, organisations, individuals and the government can lower obesity levels, which may also have support and different views from other people in the industry including restaurant insurance providers, restaurants, manufacturers and other companies.

Chairman of the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges, said, “This won’t be just another report that sits on the shelf and gathers dust; it will form the bedrock of our ongoing campaigning activity.

“We are absolutely determined to push for whatever changes need to happen to make real progress in tackling – which is why we’re casting the net wide to get input from a range of organisations and individuals”.

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Jamie Oliver Campaigns to Tackle Obesity

Friday, September 9th, 2011

TV chef, Jamie Oliver joins the coalition of nutritionists and health experts who are urging the UN to debate and address the issue of obesity at summit on disease.

According to medical experts, levels of obesity across the globe are reaching epidemic proportions. A major debate at a UN medical conference in New York will now be focusing on the subject of obesity.

Jamie Oliver and also Sir David King, former government chief scientist, are alongside the coalition of health experts and nutritionists who are encouraging western nations to help stop the increasing numbers of obese people across the planet.

Oliver told the One Young World conference in Switzerland, “There seems to be a trend with developing countries wanting to follow in the footsteps of the western world, and copy their patterns of fast food and consumerism.” He said that there was a particular problem in the Middle East, South America and India.

Oliver explained that “Pre-packed convenience food is seen as a symbol of being ‘modern’ in developing countries, but the problems it causes are long-term, and costly”. Many restaurants are finding it cheaper to serve fast, fatty food because of the increased cost of commercial restaurant insurance, supplies and other costly overheads.

Oliver has called for a “global movement to make obesity a human rights issue” and set up a petition and urged people to sign it. His aim is to encourage the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon and other heads of state to “sit up and take notice”.

Oliver is also a firm believer of national dishes and urged countries to hold on to them and for recipes to pass from generation to generation. “I believe that together we can make some real noise ahead of this meeting of experts,” he said.

King wrote in the Lancet, “We need changes in many aspects of our environment to avoid the morbid consequences of overweight and obesity. This change will require global political leadership across public policy, considerably broader than that of health policy, and far better monitoring.”

He wrote that “By 2050, 60% of men and 50% of women could be clinically obese.

“Without action, obesity-related diseases will cost the UK £45bn a year. Research and action should therefore be undertaken to avoid what could develop into a massive problem, not just for the UK, but also globally.”

There are many factors that are blamed on the rise of obesity including jobs away from manual labour, the increase of car use, the availability of cheap, high calorie foods and also the rise in urban living.

However, King insisted that it is not people being lazy or overeating that is causing the current obesity epidemic, but how people that much less choice in the matter of their weight than they would imagine.

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Should there be a Tax on Junk Food?

Friday, August 26th, 2011

Academics have insisted that the Coalition should tax fatty and sugary foods, as they caution that by 2030, nearly half of all adults in Britain will be obese.

According to public health experts, much stronger systems are needed to stop the increasing cases of obesity.

In the study that was published in The Lancet, in 2008, 26% of British women and men were obese, but if historical trends continue, the figure could rise to 46% by 2030 which means that, in less than 20 years time, there could be an additional 11 million obese people.

This is a worrying number because people who are overweight tend to suffer much more from heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Not only could people suffer with more problems, but so would the NHS. Obesity could cost the state £32 billion a year by 2050, which is almost a third of today’s NHS budget.

For most food, there is currently no VAT. It would be politically fraught if this was to change, as with the rising cost of other things like restaurant insurance UK, minimum wage increases, tighter rules and regulations, businesses have already been affected. However, the main reason is because it would hit poorer homes the hardest.

Taxing unhealthy drink and food would save governments billions by reducing obesity-related illness, as well as bringing in revenue, says Professor Steven Gortmaker from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Gortmaker calculated that a tax about unhealthy food would save California about $1.5 billion (around £1 million) a year with their population of 37 million people.

According to Gortmaker, his analysis showed a ‘fat tax’ was the single most effective measure, in terms of lives saved, followed by traffic light food labelling, and tighter control of advertising junk food to children.

Oxford University Professor, Klim McPherson, who also worked on the obesity forecasts, has condemned the Coalition ministers for believing that they could fix the obesity problems without radical action.

Denmark has put a tax on their unhealthy food, but it doesn’t seem likely that Britain will follow suit.

The Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, said that “rather than nannying people we will nudge them”. He added that “Nudges are very important. Tax is not a nudge, tax is a shove.”

Many would feel a food tax – even on unhealthy products – to be a tax on living. Deciding what or how to tax would also be a minefield.”

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Fast Food Adverts on TV increases Kid’s Cravings

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

A recent study that was published in Paediatrics showed that television advertisements for fast food really do make kids hungry for those treats, especially if they watch a lot of TV.

To combat obesity, there are an increasing number of calls to ban junk food advertisements that are aimed at kids. The latest call was from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which released a policy statement on junk food ads on Monday.

Emma Boyland, from the University of Liverpool in the UK, led the research which involved 6 to 13 year olds, found that a DVD featuring junk & fast food advertisements seemed to boost children’s appetite for the featured foods.
There was a larger craving for fatty and sweet foods after viewing the advertisements, compared to days when the kids involved in the research just watched advertisements for toys.

Children who watched over 21 hours of television a week, found the results to be especially true, compared to those kids who watched less TV.

Researchers were modest and said the effects of the food only made a small difference in the average number of food items the kids said they wanted “right now”.

Boyland wrote “There are too many variables to take into account. It will never be possible to show in an experimental study that food commercials contribute to obesity”.

Other factors that could contribute to kids eating more junk food in real life, include the willingness of their parents to buy those foods and young children’s “pester power”.

Lori Dorfman, who has studied food marketing to children and is the director of the Berkeley Media Studies Group in California, said that “This study verifies the increasing, sustained effect of food marketing on television: the more kids watch TV, the more susceptible they are to advertising”.

Dorfman added “This wouldn’t be so bad if marketers put their best foods forwards, but they don’t”.

Children are topping up their hours of watching TV nowadays as it’s easily accessible on mobile phones, computers and gadgets, Dorfman noted.

Dorfman also said “Food companies are spending $2 billion on advertising each year, targeting kids with irresistible adverts for high-fat, salty, sugary foods and it’s simply not reasonable to expect parents to counter the companies alone”. To counter the fast food advertisers, we also need support from other people, including restaurants, suppliers, celebrity chefs, restaurant insurance providers, the government and supermarkets.

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