OBESITY WILL soon supersede tobacco as the greatest cause of premature death in the UK, an influential  committee has warned in a damning report in which both ministers and the food industry came under fire for failing to tackle the “epidemic”.
 
In its report published in May, the Commons health select committee made 69 different recommendations,  including a voluntary withdrawal of television advertising of junk food to children, and a “traffic light” system, whereby foods high in calories are marked with a red label, while those low in calories have green labels.

Advertising campaigns involving celebrities were highlighted for particular criticism: a Walkers media strategy brief seen by the committee said that the “desired consumer response” was “Wotsits are for me. I’m going to buy them when I get a chance and pester Mum for them when she next goes shopping”.

“We are appalled that a £710,000 campaign, launched by one of Britain’s largest snack manufacturers,  deliberately deployed a tactic which explicitly sought to undermine parental control over children’s
nutrition by exploiting children’s natural tendency to attempt to influence their parents,” said the report.

However, the MPs fell short of calling for a “fat tax” on foods, instead urging the government to “keep an open
mind” on the issue, observing its effect in other countries. A Cabinet-level public health committee should be established to oversee action across government departments, while a health education campaign should be introduced, similar to those used against smoking.

“The NHS has a responsibility both to take strategic action to prevent obesity, as part of its public health remit, and to provide adequate treatment for those already suffering... as it would for those suffering from any other
medical condition,” said the report.

“It appears to us to be failing in both of these areas, and this needs to change as a matter of urgency.”

Over the past 25 years, obesity rates have increased by 400 per cent, while childhood obesity has tripled over the past 20 years. Being overweight or obese is estimated to cost the country £7.4 billion a year – a figure expected to rise considerably.

“Should the gloomier scenarios relating to obesity turn out to be true, the sight of amputees will become much more familiar in the streets of Britain,” MPs argued.

“There will be many more blind people...the positive trends of recent decades in combating heart disease, partly the consequence of the decline in smoking, will be reversed. Indeed, this will be the first generation where children die before their parents as a consequence of childhood obesity.”

Speaking at the launch of the report, chairman of the health select commit-tee and Labour MP for Wakefield David Hinchliffe described the findings of the one-year investigation as “staggering”.

“The devastating consequences of the epidemic of obesity are likely to have a profound impact over the next
century,” he said.

“Our inquiry is a wake-up call for government to show that the causes of ill health need to be tackled by many departments, not just health,” he added.

And it was “simply unacceptable” that sports and education ministers had endorsed initiatives to supply schools with sporting equipment or books but which required children to buy crisps and chocolate.

“Food companies and supermarkets will need to take real responsibility for their products and marketing, not simply pay lip service to it while undermining genuine efforts to reform the nation’s diet,” he said. “Labelling needs to be radically simplified, and schools will have to encourage activity and actively monitor the health of their children.”

Health secretary John Reid defended the government’s record, highlighting measures including making fruit  available free to children aged between four and six, and improving school sports facilities.

“We share the committee’s concern about the seriousness of the health impact of obesity,” he said. It is one of the key issues which will be addressed in our white paper on public health later this year.

“We recognise that these issues are not just a matter for government – they involve individuals and the choices they make, as well as the food and leisure industry.”

Reid said that his department was already “working closely” with colleagues across government to encourage and enable people to eat more nutritious food and take more exercise.

Reid said that the government recognised that the report may stimulate further debate and “in order to ensure
everyone can have their say” had decided to extend the consultation period, which was due to finish at the end of May, for another month until the end of June.

Then shadow health secretary Tim Yeo said the government had “failed to tackle the problem of obesity”.

“After seven years in office, and a disastrously muddled attitude to public health, its time the government gave this crucial issue the attention it deserves,” he said. “Last year, we called for a public health commissioner to ensure this was delivered. Sadly Labour has preferred to leave responsibility in the hands of a junior minister who has many other duties.”

However, the committee itself later came under fire for highlighting the case of a three-year old girl said to have died weighing six stone.

Scientists at Addenbrooke’s Hospital at Cambridge University, where the girl was treated, said that a genetic condition was at the root of the girl’s problem, which had caused her to feel hungry all the time. Her parents were said to be extremely upset at media reporting of the case, which blamed for them for their daughter’s weight.

“It is an incontrovertible fact that a genetic defect was the cause of this child’s problem,” said Dr Sadaf Farooqi.

Describing himself as “very disappoint-ed” and “annoyed” at the way the child’s case was represented, Dr Farooqi said that it had been “completely scientifically inappropriate to link this child’s case with the common problem of childhood obesity”.

But Hinchliffe defended his committee and its report. “It saddens me that we are being criticised, I believe unfairly, by people who have obviously read tabloid headlines and not troubled to read the detail of our
report and the evidence given,” he said.