‘Childhood obesity needs tough measures’

MINISTERS must introduce tough new measures to tackle childhood obesity, including controlling the “deep discounting” by supermarkets of unhealthy foods, MPs have said.

In a new report, the Commons Health Committee said the Government’s childhood obesity strategy published last August does not go far enough. MPs have previously made a series of recommendations to tackle obesity but most of these were ignored or rejected by the Government, they said.

One recommendation was for strong controls on price promotions of unhealthy food and drinks but there was “no mention of price promotions” in the Government’s strategy, the new report said. Other recommendations included tougher controls on marketing and advertising but the strategy made “no mention” of these.

Further proposals were also not acted upon, MPs said, including the labelling of products to show their sugar content in teaspoons. There was also no mention of improved education and information on diet, or stronger powers for local authorities to tackle the environment leading to obesity.

They are now calling on the Government to take stronger action, including reducing “the impact of deep discounting and price promotions on the sales of unhealthy food and drink”. QUIZ ANSWERS: 1. Four. 2. Titanium. 3. Convocation. 4. Ribble. 5. Nick Hornby. 6. July 14. Missing link: BEAN.