Doling out drugs is no way to halt child obesity
To combat the effects of junk food the government must learn from other countries rather than rely on Big Pharma
The Hansel and Gretel food industry has spent decades trying to lure our children into eating its ultra-processed products: crisps, doughnuts, ice cream, fried chicken, chocolate cereals and muffins. Many of the most successful, addictive and artificial creations imitate the carbs-to-fat ratio in breast milk and are deemed to have hyper-palatability, overriding our natural appetites.
Manufacturers appear to have had few qualms about fattening up our children, enticing them with ads and adding irresistible syrup, sweeteners, salt and flavourings. This has made billions of pounds from boosting an epidemic of overeating that is destroying our health, costs the NHS an estimated £6.1 billion a year and accounts for one sixth of NHS admissions. More than 29.5 million people in the UK are classed as obese, including a fifth of all 11-year-olds.
Now another industry, Big Pharma, is set to make billions of dollars by giving teenagers as well as adults a shot of semaglutide once a week to help them lose this weight. In the US, the drug has already been approved for anyone over 12 and the UK government is considering doing the same. The pharma companies may seem like fairy godmothers waving their syringes but our children now risk being blown up then deflated like balloons, pumped up with cakes and crisps before being pricked with slimming drugs that will cost the NHS yet more cash while making the global drugs industry an estimated $50 billion by 2030.
These new weight-loss drugs, marketed under brand names like Wegovy and Ozempic, may prove to be beneficial for adults. Men in particular, from Elon Musk to Jeremy Clarkson, seem to adore their quick if expensive (£250 a month) fix and aren’t embarrassed to show off their slender new bellies. Originally created for diabetics, the drugs help to suppress hunger pangs and shift weight better than the old grapefruit and coffee diets. But the potential side-effects seem severe: the risk of nausea, vomiting, vitamin deficiencies or, in a friend’s case, loss of taste and smell. Participants also regain, on average, two thirds of their lost weight when they quit.
Many adults, who have been struggling with their waistlines for years, are prepared to take the risks. But children should learn to eat healthily before they get into this cycle of addiction. We are in danger of becoming a nation locked in a cycle of binge and purge that could cost us a fortune in medical bills, harm our self-esteem and encourage even more food disorders.
Being overweight is hereditary, don’t fat-shame, celebrate body positivity, millennials say. Why can’t we bring cake into the office, insist the older generation — don’t be killjoys. It’s true that skinny depictions of models and actors are also harmful and the overweight shouldn’t be stigmatised, because willpower alone won’t fix this problem. But this isn’t about looks, it’s about health, and this country has become super-sized. Only 1 one per cent of people were classed as obese in 1950; now our multiple rolls of fat are making us more susceptible to diabetes, dementia, depression, strokes and inflammatory bowel disease.
Since 1992, successive governments have launched 689 anti-obesity measures but few have stuck because, like calorie-counting on menus, they rely on individual determination rather than changing the quality and quantity of food. Henry Dimbleby resigned recently as the government’s food tsar in frustration at this “insane inaction”. But there is another way. In Japan, they had a similar problem after the Second World War when American troops got local children addicted to Twinkies, fries and hotdogs, until they countered by providing all pupils with free nutritious raw fish and rice lunches.
In Finland in 1972, men in North Karelia were found to have the highest rate of heart disease in the world. The Finns introduced healthy school meals, bike paths, playgrounds and put pressure on food firms to reduce fat and salt in their products. Cardiovascular mortality rates have dropped by 80 per cent.
In Amsterdam they focused on activities. Within three years of their Healthy Weight Approach initiative in 2012, the city saw a 12 per cent drop in childhood obesity. Fruit juice was banned from schools, the number of fast food outlets was limited and advertising restricted, and subsidised activities were provided for low-income families. Teenagers now cycle on average 1,098 km a year.
So there is more the British can do before succumbing to injections. But we need to accept that personal responsibility is not enough. It’s impossible for most individuals to ignore the multibillion-pound fast food industry, as the infectious diseases doctor Chris van Tulleken explains in his new book Ultra-Processed People. Unlike smokers or alcoholics, food addicts can’t attempt to go cold turkey; they need to eat, yet suppliers and supermarkets push them to mainline sugar and fat.
Free nutritious school meals for all primary school children would be the best start. The 2018 sugar tax on fizzy drinks has worked, with most companies rapidly reformulating their brands. Now 64 per cent of voters believe food conglomerates should be taxed on sugar and salt content in food.
Exercise, as the Dutch discovered on rolling out their project nationwide, helps, in conjunction with healthy eating. The children’s commissioner, Rachel de Souza, said last week, “Children have told me again and again that they want to be active”. Rishi Sunak has had no qualms about insisting on maths until 18, so why not sport? Fewer than half of children aged six are taking at least an hour of activity a day. That’s 12 hours stuck in a seat. Meanwhile, a ban on junk food adverts before 9pm on TV would signal the government is serious.
Feed them up, then slim the down is not the answer. This generation of Hansel and Gretels deserve a chance to escape our toxic food tales.
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