The children’s food campaign Sustain is urging the Government not to drop the sugar tax and any other strategy being used to try and control the increase in childhood obesity.
The say – “Children’s Health Under Threat! Reports have emerged that the new Government is considering ripping up a number of its flagship childhood obesity strategy measures. Even the successful Soft Drinks Industry Levy is under threat, as well as plans to protect children from junk food marketing. We’ve joined the Obesity Health Alliance and 70 organisations in a joint letter to PM Liz Truss. asking her to consider the cost of reversing these measures for children’s health and the NHS”.
Many of our readers don’t like the sugar tax, they say that this makes food more expensive for poor people who are the ones eating more sugar. We know that many poor families eat junk food because their children do not want to “eat broccolli”. So healthy food is more likely to be thrown away.
Why is an eating disorder organisation like ours interested in childhood obesity? Will the push for healthy eating drive people toward dieting and eating disorders?
Or will childhood obesity lead to eating disorders because overweight adolescents will try to lose weight in ways that could be dangerous?
I have heard it said that some supermarkets are not selling real cola and are pushing the diet colas that are also implicated in weight gain. This is because the “bad” bacterial in the gut feed off the chemicals in diet drinks.
NCFED takes a lot of calls from parents who are worried about their children’s eating habits, and also worried to interfere in case their child starts being funny with food.
Feeding children a lot of sugar over a period of years is like feeding them slow poison. The NHS IS on its knees managing weight related issues. Where do YOU stand on this very difficult issue?