Latest child obesity figures show Government needs to begin a dialogue with experts
New figures from Slimming World's charity partner, Cancer Research UK, show that 57,100 children are leaving primary school with an obese BMI.
Like Cancer Research UK, Slimming World is dismayed that junk food has been let off the hook in the government’s new childhood obesity strategy.
Ahead of the publication of the official strategy, Slimming World and the Royal Society for Public Health asked young people what they felt was causing child obesity and how the government should tackle it.
Around half blamed fast food takeaways and 25% had ordered a takeaway to their school – showing why tackling junk food is so important. As well as banning fast food deliveries to schools, young people also called for measures such as a loyalty card that rewards healthy food choices and food packaging to contain nutrition information for the whole product, not per serving.
Jenny Caven, Head of External Affairs, said: “These latest figures once again highlight the scale of the child obesity problem.
“Being overweight can lead to many issues with physical and mental health and emotional wellbeing and the effects are magnified when it begins in childhood.
“In their recently published childhood obesity strategy, the government failed to recognise that obesity is a complex and multi-layered issue and failed to listen to the views of weight loss experts and young people themselves.
“We now call on the government to acknowledge that the publication of its new strategy is very much a starting point and that engaging with and listening to experts in the field of weight management and behaviour change is essential if we are to make a difference to our children’s current and future health and wellbeing.”
