Conservatives under fire from obesity campaigners

The Conservative government has come under heavy criticism this week from health experts who are less than impressed with the Tories' stance on healthy eating.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has decided to scrap the Government's £75 million budget that was originally set aside to advertise the Change4Life campaign. The regulations set around junk food companies are also set to be lifted. Instead these companies will be expected to donate a portion of their profits to national healthy eating campaigns.

It appears that that the timing of these announcements couldn’t have been worse. On the back Childhood Obesity week, many professionals have been calling for a stricter stance on junk food companies. Only last week experts were suggesting that fast food products should be subject to ‘fat tax’ and should contain cigarette-style warning on their packaging. There have also been calls to abolish advertising for some junk food products that are high in sugar, salt, and fat. A ban on fast food outlets being opened near schools has also been suggested.

The President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health reasoned that 30 years ago nobody would have believed that we would see a smoking ban, and questioned: “Are we willing to be as courageous in respect of obesity?”

Mr Lansley only recently appeared to slight celebrity chef, and infamous healthy eating campaigner, Jamie Oliver when he suggested that the naked chef’s school dinners campaign had failed and that ‘lecturing’ people about their food intake was not an effective way to combat obesity.

The Department of Health has stated that they aim to create “a new vision for public health where all society works together”. It remains to be seen whether their ‘responsibility deal’ with the industry will prove successful, or whether the same problems will exist when Childhood Obesity Week arrives this time next year.