Calorie labels on pints of beer
A CRACKDOWN on alcohol is at the heart of the Government’s obesity strategy, with plans for calorie labels on pints of beer and bottles of wine.
Ministers hope to persuade the overweight to slim down by alerting them to “hidden calories” in boozy lifestyles, with more than 10 per cent of calories now consumed in alcoholic drinks.
Boris Johnson is to announce a series of measures to fight obesity, after becoming convinced his own excess weight was the reason he ended up fighting for his life with coronavirus.
It comes as research shows that severe obesity can increase the chance of dying from coronavirus by as much as 90 per cent.
The study by Public Health England also suggests our habits have got worse during lockdown, with more unhealthy snacks and less exercise.
The obesity plans, to be launched on Monday, will include a television
advertising campaign, using “influencers” such as fitness coach Joe Wicks to encourage healthier lifestyles.
Laws to force restaurants, cafés and takeaways to label the calorie content of food and drink – including alcohol – will also be announced as well as a ban on multi-buy promotions of foods such as chocolate and crisps, and on placing such foods near tills.
There will also be advertising restrictions, with a pre-9pm watershed on television advertising of unhealthy foods and a ban on online advertising of such products, because of concern that companies are using social media and Youtube to target children.
As first reported by The Daily Telegraph earlier this week, there will also be a drive to increase uptake of weight loss surgery, such as gastric bands, and an expansion of weight loss programmes, with GPS encouraged to re- fer more patients to slimming clubs.
Britain is the second fattest nation in Europe, behind only Malta, with more than a third of children overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school, along with two in three adults.
One Government source said: “It is about looking at hidden calories, and alerting people to things they might do unwittingly – drinking four or five pints, without realising that is more calories than … in a meal.”
Mr Johnson is understood to have become increasingly keen to take firm action on obesity, despite concern from retailers that the costs of some of the changes could cripple the hospitality industry when it is at its most fragile.
The Public Health England report says men aged 40 who are obese – a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or more – can expect to cut their lives short by more than four years. Obese women will lose three-and-a-half years.
This rises to 10 years and eight years respectively for severely obese people, with a BMI of 40 and over.
The research also shows a BMI of 35 to 40 increases the risk of dying from Covid by 40 per cent, while a BMI of 40 or more increases the risk by 90 per cent. Excess fat can affect the respiratory system and is likely to affect inflammatory and immune function.
Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, called for the changes to be introduced quickly.
But the food and drinks industry expressed deep concern. Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UK Hospitality, said: “Imposing those mandatory costs on the industry will just cripple it while it is going through a very fragile recovery. Now is not the time to be imposing further regulatory and cost burdens.”