Britain needs to go on a diet, health chiefs warn
BRITONS should eat less in the evening because the nation needs to “go on a diet”, public health chiefs have warned.
Under its new “One You” campaign, launched today, Britons are being encouraged to stick to 400 calories at breakfast, and 600 calories for both lunch and dinner.
Although critics branded the daily allowance too low for growing children and close to war rations, public health experts warned that obesity had now become “the norm” and said most people were eating hundreds of extra calories each day.
The new restrictions would rule out traditional meals such as fish and chips and a Sunday roast, which are both around 800 calories, as well as many curry, pizza and pasta dishes.
“Britain needs to go on a diet,” said Duncan Selbie, the chief executive at Public Health England (PHE). “The simple truth is on average we need to eat less. Children and adults routinely eat too many calories and it’s why so many are overweight or obese.”
PHE has also given the food industry six years to cut calories in family foods by 20 per cent and warned that those who failed to comply
would be named and shamed and potentially face government sanction.
Manufacturers were told they could reformulate products, reduce portion sizes or encourage customers to buy lower calorie options. The calorie reduction programme will include everyday items such as bread, cooking sauces, crisps, processed meat, rice, pasta, ready meals, sandwiches and pizza. Dr Alison Tedstone, of PHE, said: “A few healthy options on the end of a menu won’t help solve the nation’s obesity problem – we need the regular everyday products to change.”
Research from PHE found that overweight and obese children are eating an extra 500 calories a day, while the average adult consumes 200 to 300 more.
One in five children is now obese by the time they leave primary school, and in some areas of the country nearly half of 11-year-olds weigh too much. Around 58 per cent of women and 68 per cent of men are also overweight or obese.
PHE calculated that if the 20 per cent target is met within five years, then over the next 25 years more than 35,000 premature deaths could be prevented and the NHS and social care sector could save around £9billion.
Current recommendations suggest men should eat 2,500 calories a day, and women 2,000 but the new guidelines only add up to 1,600. Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said: “This is only a smidgen above the near-starvation diet that the occupying Germans allowed Parisians to live off in the Second World War. Try selling that to the British in 2018.”