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Obesity is the new smoking: NHS England

NHS England’s chief warns parents to beware of child obesity. (file photo)

NHS England’s chief executive Simon Steven has warned parents and teachers against high sugar consumption and emphasized the need to tackle overeating with the same passion as teen pregnancy, drink driving and smoking.

Stevens said public bodies and educators must now turn towards the number one priority for public health, stating: “We’ve done very well in terms of cutting smoking and teenage pregnancy and drink driving.”

“But the new smoking is obesity. One in five cancer deaths is now caused by obesity.”

Stevens said he wanted to reach out to “responsible retailers, food producers [who] can smell the coffee here.”

“One in three of our teenagers are drinking high-energy, sugary drinks,” he said. “I do think we’re going to need reformulation to take sugar out of foods, in the same way that successfully that’s happened with salt.”

“If that doesn’t happen then, in effect, what we’re doing is a slow-burner food poisoning through all of this sugar that goes on to cause cancer, diabetes, heart disease.”

Stevens highlighted the need for parental cooperation in the battle against obesity. “It’s going to take all of us to play our part,” he said. “As parents, we’ve got responsibilities. When your children come home after school – it’s water, or milk, not fizzy drinks or juice. Cut-up apples not sugary bars. We’ve got responsibilities in schools.”

This comes following shocking revelations from a study which showed Britain held second position for the highest proportion of overweight children under the age of five among 28 EU countries.

The data showed 23.1% of youngsters in the under-five age group were classed as overweight or obese with the UK coming closely behind Ireland, which registered 27.5%.

Albania (22%), Georgia (20%), Bulgaria (19.8%) and Spain (18.4%) followed Ireland and Britain in third, fourth, fifth and sixth place out of a total twenty-eight.

The bottom of the chart showed Kazakhstan had the lowest obesity rate (0.6%), along with nations including Czech Republic (5.5%) Belgium (7%) and Sweden (8%).

SU/GHN


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