Letters: Letter of the Week - Unhealthy figures
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
'More than one in five children' start their reception year already obese, writes Rob Rees, chair of the School Food Trust (In My View, 18 March).
Really? How strange that we've had almost 400 children through our pre-school in the last ten years and not a single one entered their reception class obese. Indeed, a fair few could have done with a bit more cake! The one-in-five statistic has been 'out in the wild' for a couple of years now and is often quoted in the media, on BBC's 'Panorama' and ITV's 'Too Fat to Toddle', for instance. But it's pure fiction.
I complained to the Department of Health about this almost two years ago. They replied, admitting that 'It is a typographical error and should read "two-15".' However, although they informed me that the Department was 'in the process of doing a reprint' and would 'make the change in both the hard copy and online electronic version', the last time I looked it was still uncorrected.
Dig deep enough and you can find the source of this error lies in Prime Minister Gordon Brown's foreword to the DoH publication Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives. It contains what the DoH has admitted to me is a misprint, which reads 'almost a fifth of twoto five-year-olds are obese', when it should read 'almost a fifth of twoto 15-year-olds are obese'. Significantly different, but still total nonsense.
The Annex for that report, with Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives Two Years On, published last month, shows that in 2008/09 the obesity rate for reception-age children was just 9.6 per cent - less than one in ten.
But one only has to visit real schools, as opposed to imaginary ones, to see that the actual rate of obesity at five years of age is more like one in 100, rising to around one in 50 when you include children ten years older. So, why this huge disparity between official statistics and everyday observation?
Because the DoH and the School Food Trust are deliberately exaggerating the data to gain media attention. Listen carefully and you can hear the distant rumbling of another truckload of legislation heading straight for the early years sector.
Hopefully the forthcoming general election will let some of the air out of their tyres!
Tony Dowling, Parkway Pre-School, Welwyn Garden City
- Letter of the Week wins £30 worth of books.
