Former Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Professor Dame Sally Davies has published a report ‘Time to solve childhood obesity: CMO Special Report’, which calls for action across industry and the public sector to help the government reach its target of halving childhood obesity by 2030.
Commenting on the report, Professor Derek Bell OBE, President of The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh said:
We very much welcome Prof. Dame Sally Davies report ‘Time to solve childhood obesity’ and its calls for bold measures to tackle childhood obesity. As a College we have consistently called for action to be taken on the levels of salt, sugar and fat in food and drink to address the UK’s obesity problem.
Initiatives such as the sugar tax have begun to tackle the problem at source and the public health benefits are clear, but more must be done.
Our Health Priorities document sets out our support for reducing food portion and pack sizes and stronger controls on price promotions of high fat, sugar and salt foods (HFSS). We want to see the sugar tax extended to other products such as caffeinated drinks, milkshakes and fruit smoothies. We also want Government to work with retailers to make healthy food more accessible to all.
Alongside better diet, we must be a more active nation, and the College fully supports initiatives such as the Daily Mile.
1. The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh’s recently published its Health Priorities.
2. The 'Time to solve childhood obesity' report can be found here.
