Obesity is a problem for children too

According to the World Health Organisation, almost 14 per cent of European adults are obese. With 24 per cent of its population suffering from obesity, the UK is most affected by the condition, closely followed by Malta. For children, the situation is slightly different: in 2003, Italian and Spanish children had higher levels of overweight than the US.

As well as being debilitating conditions in themselves, obesity and overweight are linked to Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and certain types of cancer (particularly breast and colon).

In England and Wales, CHD kills more than 70,000 people every year and according to the Department of Health (DH) CHD is most prevalent among people who are obese. It is expected that the consequences of overweight and obese will cost the British government around £50 billion per year by 2050.

Therefore being obese can no longer be considered a condition of the individual but rather a societal illness. We cannot carry on ignoring it and thanking the heavens that it’s not us getting CHD. It is extremely easy to say ‘it’s their fault, they did the eating’ or ‘get out more and have a run’, but those choices appear to have become increasingly removed from the everyday realities of people across the developed world.

In Food Intake and Eating Behaviour, Hill and Rogers point out that:

‘Faced by a life circumstance that discourages routine physical effort and activity and that offers a surfeit of palatable, high energy and high fat foods in bewildering variety, weight gain is an understandable consequence. ’

The growth in obesity reflects significant change in the dietary habits and physical activity levels of populations across the globe as a result of industrialisation, urbanisation, economic development and increasing food market globalisation. But the key points to bear in mind when considering obesity are these:

●        Unlike many other conditions, overweight and obesity are preventable.

●        Junk foods are accused of being the main suspects in causing obesity.

●        Inactivity as a result of transport or social choices has played an important role in encouraging overweight and obesity over the course of the last twenty years.

●        ‘Fat’ role models are not positive influences on children.

●        Obesity is a medical condition and a deadly condition – one which literally taxes the whole of society.

●        We need to do something about obesity, with a focus on children who have even less choice about their behaviours.

●        Society needs to be educated, in an effective but non-legislative way, as to how to make better choices for individuals and those whom they influence.

Academic research compiled by Ofcom confirms that hours spent in television viewing correlate with measures of poor diet, poor health and obesity among both children and adults. Three explanations for this have been offered:

What role does television play in the increase in obesity?

●        Television viewing is a sedentary activity that reduces metabolic rates and displaces physical exercise;

●        Television viewing is associated with frequent snacking, pre-prepared meals and/or fast food consumption;

●        Television viewing includes exposure to advertisements for HFSS food products.

Advertising plays a modest role on its own, but in context with other influences such as parental influence, brand promotion and discounts, and lifestyle models, the marketing and advertising of junk food products has become detrimental to society.

In the Netherlands and Sweden, junk food advertising has been made illegal when directed at young children and the Junk Food generation has launched a campaign to stop all marketing of unhealthy food to children. These are positive moves, but it needs to go further.

Research shows that parental behaviour is one of the key factors influencing the eating behaviours of children. Often, obesity in adults is followed by obesity in their children.

Marketing needs to get to the parents and the children and teach them about the decisions they make and the alternatives available to them, in a non-patronising way. In many instances, the hereditary nature of obesity has resulted in a complete lack of knowledge about the connections between diet, health and disease and the urban myth that ‘junk food is cheaper’ has become so far ingrained that people have stopped questioning its relevance.

In the UK, the Change4Life campaign has now been launched, using advertising on TV, in schools, councils, doctors’ surgeries and on the internet to get messages through. This campaign needs to be evaluated to identify the possible benefits to be gained from using advertising to counter rather than to promote unhealthy dietary choices.

The EU has a clear role to play here and needs to work to stop a worrying trend which drives us ever closer to our friends across the pond.