Ebook Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: A Cross-Government Strategy For England
Britain is in the grip of an epidemic. Almost two thirds of adults and a third of children are either overweight or obese, and work by the Government Office for Science’s Foresight programme suggests that, without clear action, these figures will rise to almost nine in ten adults and two-thirds of children by 2050. This matters because of the severe impact being overweight or obese can have on an individual’s health – both are associated with an increasing risk of diabetes, cancer, and heart and liver disease among others – and the risks get worse the more overweight people become. They matter because of the pressure such illnesses put on families, the NHS and society more broadly, with overall costs to society forecast to reach £50 billion per year by 2050 on current trends.
At the core of the problem is an imbalance between ‘energy in’ – what is consumed through eating – and ‘energy out’ – what is used by the body, including energy used through physical activity. While individual responsibility for decisions about energy consumption and expenditure is important, recent work by Foresight and others shows that a multitude of factors can affect these decisions. Genetic, psychological, cultural and behavioural factors all have an important role to play and these are difficult to influence. Foresight showed that the changing pattern of our lives, which equally affects food consumption and physical activity, makes it increasingly hard for people to maintain a healthy weight. From the nature of the food that we eat, to the built environment, to the way our children lead their lives, modern life is making it harder for all of us to fulfil our goal of staying healthy and well.
So as the Foresight report pointed out, we are facing a public health problem that the experts have told us is comparable with climate change in both its scale and its complexity. As with climate change, tackling the problem will involve making progress in a wide range of areas, and as a society we will only turn this round over time. Thirty years in the making, the obesity epidemic will not be halted overnight: this strategy is an important stage in what will be Government’s year-on-year commitment to do its part to build a society in which we can all maintain a healthy weight.
Halting the obesity epidemic is about individual behaviour and responsibility: how people choose to live their lives, what they eat and how much physical activity they do. It is about the responsibility of the private and voluntary sectors too – a food industry, for example, that takes its responsibility to supply foods that promote health seriously; employers that make the health of their workforce part of their core responsibility.
However, the Government has a significant role to play too: not in hectoring or lecturing but in expanding the opportunities people have to make the right choices for themselves and their families; in making sure that people have clear and effective information about food, exercise and their well being; and in ensuring that its policies across the piece support people in their efforts to maintain a healthy weight. The Government’s approaches to early years, schools, food, sport and physical activity, planning, transport, the health service and other areas all need to support the creation of a society that fully promotes health.
Since 2000, the Government has taken action on a number of fronts to promote healthier food choices and greater access to physical activity, especially among parents and children. In particular, significant improvements have been made to food standards in schools, and to the amount of PE and sport that children do at school. England is considered to be a global leader for its introduction of both front-of pack food labelling and broadcast advertising restrictions on food products high in fat, salt and sugar within programmes targeted at children. However, the scale of the challenge dictates that we must do much more to give people the opportunities that they want to make healthy choices about activity and food.
CONTENTS
Executive summary
1. The challenge
2. Our new ambition – a healthy weight for all
3. Achieving the new ambition
4. Delivering change
5. Investing in our knowledge
Conclusion
Annex A – Definition of obesity
Endnotes
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PDF Ebook Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: A Cross-Government Strategy For England
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