Nanny-state fears 'curb action on obesity'
Jan 22 2007
Westen Mail
A tax on unhealthy food and subsidies to encourage us to eat better may sound like government intervention gone mad.
But these are just the sort of measures needed to combat an obesity problem that is spiralling out of control across Wales and the rest of the UK, according to experts.
A sedentary lifestyle combined with a fatty, calorific diet has been blamed - but the government is actually afraid of intervening too much, according to a top health expert.
Professor Peter Kopelman warns today that the Government is failing to tackle Britain's obesity crisis over fears of being branded as running a 'nanny state'.
He calls for 'less talk and more action' and said Ministers should toughen up their stance.
Healthy food should be subsidised and unhealthy food taxed, and cash for tackling obesity ringfenced at a local level, he says.
Furthermore, the food and drinks industry should be forced to comply with measures to promote healthy living.
Prof Kopelman has worked in the field of obesity for 30 years and previously ran an obesity clinic at the Royal London Hospital.
He is now director of the Faculty of Health at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.
Merely informing people about healthy choices was not the best way to tackle the growing problem, he said.
'That has never worked in the past for public health and I don't think it will help in the future,' he says.
Disparate methods of food labelling meant people got confused and could 'switch off' from healthy messages.
And he draws parallels with the drive over many years to stop people smoking.
'We went through 40 years before legislation was actually enacted,' he said, adding that it was only when cigarette packets carried warnings and curbs were placed on advertising that the number of smokers began to fall.
Legislation could include banning unhealthy food advertising to children rather than the 'watered down' version being considered by regulators Ofcom, he says.
A 'fat tax' on unhealthy foods could be introduced, although subsidising healthy food would be preferable, he says. Supermarkets and manufacturers could be given tax incentives to promote healthy foods and more could be done at EU level.
Measures to improve exercise habits could include curbing traffic in city centres, better town planning and encouraging people to walk or use bikes.
While the Government was undertaking some of these initiatives 'on paper', implementation was 'actually very, very sparse', Prof Kopelman argues.
One of the biggest problems was that the Government feared being branded a nanny state but the future of children's health was at stake, he claims.
'We have seen an enormous volume of publications about obesity and policies to restrict and reduce it over the years but few policies have been actively implemented and none have been successful to date,' he says.
'What is perhaps most frustrating of all is the failure of prevention programmes due to governments' fears of being branded nanny states.
'In my view a good nanny advises, informs and supports but also, on occasions, enforces.'
Prof Kopelman says obesity used to be relatively unusual and genetics or glandular fever were thought to play a part.
'Since that time it's just spiralled and it's very evident that this is a problem related to modern lifestyles, that we eat more than required and are physically inactive,' he says.
A Department of Health report published last year predicted that more than 12 million adults and one million children will be obese by 2010.
A third of adults and a fifth of all children will be obese, leading to greater incidences of cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, it said.
Prof Kopelman says, 'In many ways, the obesity issue highlights the fact that public health has been left in the 20th century.
'We need much more innovative methods to persuade people to change their lifestyles for the 21st century, supported by a regulatory and legislative framework.'
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has also published guidelines to ensure there is a focus on preventing obesity.
Obesity in the UK