Call for food industry to help curb obesity

THE food industry could support the Government in tackling obesity during the coronavirus outbreak by curbing adverts and promotions on unhealthy foods, experts have said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is said to be drawing up plans for a “much more interventionist” drive to tackle obesity, as part of measures to reduce the impact of the virus, The Times reported.

It follows a study showing that more than a quarter of NHS patients who died in hospitals in England after contracting coronavirus had diabetes, while other research found that being obese doubled the risk of needing hospital treatment for coronavirus.

Experts welcomed the news that a strategy was being developed and said there should be a focus on helping people shed pounds, as well as preventing them becoming overweight.

But they said that the food industry could voluntarily take steps to stop promoting unhealthy foods while people are in lockdown.

Malcolm Clark, policy manager at Cancer Research UK, said that the industry could agree not to promote foods with high fat or sugar content.

He added: “There are things the industry can do right now to support a healthy weight. There’s much more the food industry could do now – ensuring they do not have high fat or sugar promotions, ensuring that when they are doing their marketing and advertising they are not pushing the most sugary options.”

Susan Jebb, professor of diet and population health at the University of Oxford, said that people being exposed to food advertising prompted them to eat.

She said that there were a number of preventative measures the Government could introduce, including putting calorie labels on menus and restricting promotions and advertising on unhealthy foods. She added: “There is discussion about restricting TV advertising at a time when everyone is stuck at home and are more exposed to food advertising.

“We know that being exposed to advertising prompts people to eat.

“So taking action to control advertising, restrict promotions, enforce calorie labelling on menus, those are going to require legislative action. We know what to do, it is just a question of doing it.”

During the Tory leadership race last year Mr Johnson came under heavy criticism for pledging to review so-called sin taxes, including the levy on sugary soft drinks.

But The Times reported that Mr Johnson is understood to be convinced that the reason he ended up in intensive care was because of his weight.

Caroline Cerny, alliance lead at Obesity Health Alliance, said it was “really welcome news” that the Government was drawing up a new strategy. She said: “We know that having obesity can increase the risk of developing other types of disease and now it is looking likely it is also linked to complications from Covid-19.”