Obesity Strategy Falls Short Again?

Posted: Fri, 29 Jun 2018 09:17

Obesity Strategy Falls Short Again?

Given the scale of the Obesity problem in the UK (and globally) it is always going to be difficult for a government strategy to satisfy everybody interested in the issue. Sadly the latest Obesity strategy update lives up to these low expectations.

We have been following the debate since the Mid 00s and the last Labour government attempts to take on this issue, where again due to pressure of being accused of the 'Nanny state' many of the measures introduced fell short of the radical action need to tackle the size of the problem.

There have been welcome signs that government is throwing off the fear of nanny state accusations as the problem become more acute and we have to applaud the bravery of introducing the Sugar Levy and linking this to physical activity and schools sport/ PE. Many of the individual new measures also have to welcomed - the Daily Mile type imitative and cycling as well as tackling the sugar aisle in shops! Again we recognise that tackling Obesity is multi faceted and complicated so the individual measures will add up to the greater sum of their parts, so none should be taken in isolation.

But and this is a BIG but. The sum of the parts don't add up into a grand strategy and plan that deals with the sheer size of the problem. We are still tinkering around the edges and facing a generation that will suffer the long term consequences of our inability to deal with the Food Industry, advertising, and our lack of education around food and reducing levels of Physical Activity.

Tags: DCMS, Featured, Sports Policy, Sports Think Tank, sport policy