Originally published July 7 2005
Chefs and doctors join forces to battle obesity in Britain
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
While America debates whether to remove junk food from schools, British doctors are following suit, and, along with celebrity chefs, are calling for less junk food and more healthy options in state-run British schools.
They also want school meals to be subjected to strict guidelines on sugar and fat content, as well as minimum levels of vitamins and minerals.
The BMA, which represents around 130,000 doctors, or about three quarters of those practicing in the UK, says that there are around 1 million obese children under 16 years of age in the UK.
The soaring rates in obesity have led to an increase in childhood type 2 diabetes and will lead to more future cases of heart disease, osteoarthritis and some cancers, according to the report.
On one hand they might learn about healthy eating at school and then they go home and spend hours watching TV and see celebrities eating hamburgers, crisps or drinking fizzy drinks.
The new report laid much of the responsibility for tackling the epidemic with the government, calling on it to mount a sustained public education campaign to improve parents' and children's understanding of the benefits of healthy living, and also subsidise the cost of fruit and vegetables to encourage healthy eating.
However it also requested that manufacturers be legally obliged to reduce salt, sugar and fat in pre-prepared meals to an agreed level within a defined time frame, and that celebrity endorsement be restricted to products that meet nutritional criteria laid down by the Foods Standards Agency.
Although there is no precise figure of how much obesity costs the country's national health service (NHS), every year it spends at least �2 billion on treating ill health caused by poor diet.
Childhood obesity has become a major political issue in Britain partly due to a successful campaign by 'Naked Chef' Jamie Oliver who revealed the poor quality of food being served to children in state-run schools.
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