Our children are obese and it’s all the food industry’s fault, say some. But is it really down to kids being fed too much of the wrong kind of food, or should they simply be taking more exercise? Chris Lyddon asked the experts.
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“It’s not either or. It really isn’t an issue that’s so easily simplified,” Neville Rigby, Director of Policy and Public Affairs for the International Association for the Study of Obesity, told just-food.com. “We have so few opportunities for exercise. Playing fields are being sold off. Parents drive children to school because they don’t feel safe letting them walk.”
But he did have an issue with the way food was sold to children. “The marketing to children is intense. They’re surrounded by a cornucopia of calories,” he said.
There were some areas in which action could be taken fast. He singled out school meals. The US was requiring schools to provide nutritious meals, while school boards, fearful of being sued by angry parents of obese children were moving to take vending machines out of schools. “Schools have a responsibility in loco parentis,” he said. “Many parents object to schools letting children behave in ways they don’t at home.”
Industry moves
There was a need to look closely at the marketing and advertising of food to children “especially when food industry leaders like Coca-Cola are making announcements that they will not market to children under 12,” he said. “What are the rest doing? Who will start to clean up their act first and will they lose money or will they gain?”
Other companies had also made commitments on marketing to children, he said, noting Kraft’s commitment not to market in schools. “A number of companies have made very clear statements,” he said. “At least they’re making claims in that direction.”
The big companies were leading the way in responding to consumer demand. “The centre of gravity has moved. A lot of parents are angry that their children are bombarded with messages,” he said. “If we look at the marketplace, a lot of the feedback suggests that there’s a vast expansion in the healthy food market. It’s a question of how rapidly you can turn round.”
The World Health Organisation is not in the business of blame, David Porter at the WHO told just-food.com. “We tend to suggest that you can no longer look at diet and physical exercise in isolation,” he said. Information was important. “It’s a question of what it is easiest for people to do,” he said.
Public health crisis
“This is a huge public health crisis we are facing in this country and other countries,” David Hinchcliffe, a member of the UK parliament, said last month. Hinchcliffe, who chairs the Commons health select committee, accused celebrities, like former England soccer star Gary Lineker, who promotes Walkers Crisps, of harming children’s health by appearing in food advertisments.
“Role models of that nature have to look to what they are doing in respect of the wider health message,” he said. The WHO’s David Porter was also concerned about the effect of advertising. “Advertising and marketing tend to be very influential,” he said.
According to the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools at George Washington University, the percentage of children aged six to eleven who are overweight more than doubled between the late 1970s and 2000, rising from 6.5% to 15.3%. The proportion of 12 to 19 year olds who are overweight rose from 5.0% to 15.5% in the same period.
Childhood obesity is not just an American problem, the Center points out. It quotes figures showing that obesity among Canadian schoolchildren, aged seven to 13, tripled between 1981 and 1996. A study in Germany had found an increase in the proportion of obese seven to 14 year old boys from 10% to 16.3% between 1975 and 1995. The proportion for girls rose from 11.7% to 20.7%.
The EU childhood obesity study CHOPIN puts the prevalence of childhood obesity at between 10% in Slovakia and over 35% in Italy.
Eating habits play a role
Worldwide the problem is becoming a developing, rather than developed, country problem, said the WHO’s David Porter. Non-communicable diseases, like heart disease, or diabetes could be tied to diet, without that meaning obesity in itself. “You can have very high cholesterol even though you’re not obese,” he said. “Some countries have a big heart disease problem, even though they don’t have an especially obese population.”
The American Obesity Association identifies a range of factors which cause child and adolescent obesity. They include a lack of regular exercise, or sedentary behaviour, which the AOA describes as a “high frequency of television viewing, computer usage, and similar behavior that takes up time that can be used for physical activity,” as well as socio-economic status, which they identify as a low family income or non-working parents.
But eating habits do also play a role, particularly the over consumption of high-calorie foods. “Some eating patterns that have been associated with this behaviour are eating when not hungry, eating while watching TV or doing homework,” the AOA said.
And what the AOA calls the environment also makes a difference. “Some factors are over-exposure to advertising of foods that promote high-calorie foods and lack of recreational facilities,” it says.
There is also a genetic element. “Greater risk of obesity has been found in children of obese and overweight parents,” the AOA said.
In the UK, the British Dietetic Association has warned that Britain is on its way to becoming one of the fattest nations in the world unless something is done about childhood obesity. “I don’t think we can put the blame on one cause,” Amanda Wynne at the BDA told just-food.com.
But whatever was causing it there had been a massive rise in obesity. She singled out lack of exercise as a particular problem. “People are really taking a lot less exercise,” she said. And children were particularly likely to be more sedentary.
There was also a problem with diet. “We’re eating a lot more energy dense foods,” she said. “A lot of foods aimed at kids are quite high in fat and high in sugar. We’ve got this overabundance of high fat and high sugar food.”
Go for a walk, run, bike ride, swim…
The message from the BDA to parents concerned about overweight children was more exercise. “I would encourage parents to go out and do things with their children,” Wynne said. “Go out for a walk, or a bike ride.” There was a role for government. “We do need more government policies to create safe activities that children can do,” she said.
The UK food industry has responded to government sabre rattling on the issue with a joint pledge by organisations across the food chain to work together to handle problems like obesity. “We recognise that the industry has a responsibility to provide consumer choice, but we also have a responsibility to educate consumers on how to achieve a balanced diet,” Kate Snowden of the Food and Drink Federation told just-food.com.
“We’re part of the solution, but not the entire solution,” she said. It was not appropriate to blame the industry for the problem of childhood obesity. “I don’t think that we take the blame, but then apportioning blame doesn’t help,” she said.
The industry does take a dim view of talk of further controls on promotion of food to children. “The promotion of food and drink to children is already highly regulated,” FDF deputy director general Martin Paterson said in a statement last month. “The industry takes a very responsible view of advertising, particularly of products aimed at children,” he said. “Parents will take a dim view of any “Nanny State”-type approaches to matters of personal choice.”
