Childhood obesity is particularly harmful because it limits a child's ability to enjoy a full and active life and also increases the risk of diabetes, cancer and heart and liver disease later in life.
Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives, a cross-government strategy launched last year, sets out the agenda for the UK to reverse the rise in obesity by ensuring that everyone is able to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. The strategy's initial focus is on children, with the aim to reduce the proportion of overweight and obese children to 2000 levels by 2020. It builds on other initiatives such as the Government-led 5 A DAY fruit and vegetable campaign.
The five key elements of the strategy are:
First, the healthy growth and development of children
- Early identification of at-risk families and plans to make breastfeeding the default option for mothers.
- Investment in healthy schools, increasing participation in physical activity, and making cooking a compulsory part of the national curriculum.
- A £75 million marketing campaign to support and empower parents to make changes to their children's diets and increase levels of physical activity.
Second, promoting healthier food choices
- Setting out a Healthy Food Code of Good Practice, to be finalised in partnership with the food and drink industry, including proposals to develop a single, simple and effective approach to food labelling, and to challenge the industry (including restaurants and food outlets) to support individuals and families in reducing their consumption of saturated fat, salt and sugar.
- Ofcom to bring forward its review of the restrictions already introduced on the advertising of unhealthy foods to children.
- Promote local authority planning powers to limit the spread of fast-food outlets in particular areas, such as close to schools or parks.
Third, building physical activity into our lives
- Investment of £30m in 'Healthy Towns' - working with selected towns and cities to bring together the successful EPODE (Ensemble, Prevenons L'Obesite Des Enfants) model used in Europe, using infrastructure and whole-town approaches to promoting physical activity.
- Set up a working group with the entertainment technology industry to ensure that it continues to develop tools to allow parents to manage the time their children spend watching TV or playing sedentary games, online and much more widely.
- Review our overall approach to physical activity, including the role of Sport England, with the aim of producing a fresh set of programmes to ensure there is a clear legacy of increased physical activity before and after the 2012 Games.
Fourth, creating incentives for better health
- Stronger incentives for individuals, employers and the NHS to prioritise the long-term work of improving health.
- Working with employers and employer organisations to explore how companies can best promote good health among their staff and make healthy workplaces part of their core business model.
- We will pilot and evaluate a range of different approaches to using personal financial incentives to encourage healthy living.
Fifth, personalised advice and support
- Developing the NHS Choices website so that it provides advice for diet and activity levels, with clear and consistent information on how to maintain a healthy weight.
- Increased funding over the next three years to support the commissioning of more weight-management services, where people can access help to support them in achieving real and sustained weight loss.
- Further information: Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: A Cross Government Strategy for England can be found at www.dh.gov.uk
