BMA urges government to tackle childhood obesity

The British Medical Association (BMA) has issued a list of recommendations in an attempt to urge the government to tackle the growing problem of childhood obesity.

The BMA is urging the government to ensure that school meals adhere to strict guidelines on sugar and fat content, as well as ban all unhealthy food and drinks vending machines in schools and increase funding and improve access to sport and recreation facilities.

The government should also subsidise the cost of fruit and vegetables and provide free water, in order to further encourage children to eat healthily, the BMA said in a new report.

The report also urged the government to impose a ban on advertising junk food to children and to ensure that celebrities and children’s television characters only endorses healthy products.

The government has already pledged to raise the standard of school dinners and introduce a series of minimum standards to reduce the content of fat, sugar and salt in meals by September 2006. There are also plans to tighten the rules on advertising junk food to children.

The BMA said that there are now over 22 million children under-five who are severely overweight worldwide. In the UK, the number of obese children under the age of 16 now stands at 1 million. The BMA said that the growing figures have already led to an increase in childhood type II diabetes and would eventually lead to more future cases of heart disease, osteoarthritis and some cancers.

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, Head of BMA Science and Ethics, warned that there was “no room for complacency” and said it was “essential” that the government listened to doctors’ advice. She said: “It is madness that at a time when children are being told to eat less and do more exercise, they go into school and are sold fizzy drinks and doughnuts and do less than two hours time-tabled exercise a week.

"Children are being bombarded with mixed messages. On one hand, they might learn about healthy eating at school and they go home and spend hours watching TV and see celebrities eating hamburgers, crisps or drinking fizzy drinks. Children and parents are surrounded by the marketing of unhealthy cereals, snacks and processed meals – this has to stop.”

(KMcA/SP)