News | Friday, 21st August 2020

Britain’s obesity strategy: A one-size-fits-all approach will not work

Registered Dietitian Avni Vyas says differences in food culture, ethnicity, gender and age mean we need more targeted advice

By Avni Vyas, Registered Dietitian and Senior Lecturer in Food, Nutrition and Health, Faculty of Health, Psychology and Social Care, Manchester Metropolitan University

Everyone spends a lot of time ensuring everyone and everything is equal but when it comes to our health – we’re not.

And this is why the government’s strategy to tackle obesity will not work on its own.

Obesity has been on the rise for decades, and as it stands Britain has the largest rate of obesity in Europe. It is a complex condition and needs a more dedicated team of health professionals to address it.

Of course the strategy is welcome and it is good to see that we are encouraging people to be more fit and healthy; but there are other approaches that would create more sustainable changes in people’s lives especially in relation to weight loss and maintenance.

It does not address the complexity of food choice. These policies focus on individuals making changes and not acknowledging wider social forces such as town planning, food access, food availability and poverty. These are much harder to solve and more politicised issues and tend to skirted around.

Food culture, ethnicity, gender and age all impact obesity rates in different communities and we have to stop with the one-size-fits-all approach if we want to make it work.

 “Wake-up call”

The new government measures came to light as a result of COVID-19, where evidence suggests that those with poor health and classed as overweight have an increased risk of more severe complications or death as a result of the virus.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s own experiences with the virus are reportedly a driving factor, calling it a “wake-up call for the whole country”.

But what’s important to remember is that it is not COVID-19 that makes this strategy so important.

Huge numbers of people die every year from chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes as a result of obesity. It is only that COVID-19 is currently making the headlines that makes this virus the catalyst for such a campaign.  

The measures introduced include mandating calorie labelling, restricting ‘buy one, get one free’ promotions of high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) foods and banning TV and online advertisements of HFSS foods before 9pm.

But the problem here is that these interventions only look at a small section of the wider issue.

A wider issue

These big policy changes are bound to hit our headlines, and although can be good steps to take, do not get to the heart of the problem and usually promise more than they can deliver with no lasting impact.

One example from recent years is the Sugar Tax that was introduced in 2018. This intervention put an extra charge on drinks that contained high levels of sugar.

We all thought that it would change the way that people bought food and drink, but instead companies just worked around it and produced their products with much less sugar to keep their prices the same and keep consumers interested.

Although on the face of it this seems like a good outcome, this isn’t necessarily helpful.

These drinks still contain the same acids and caffeine that we saw before, but the sugar is substituted with aspartame – an artificial sweetener.

Little is known about the long-term effects of this sweetener for children who are still developing, so instead of tackling the issues of obesity, we could be potentially adding to them.

Food industry

Rather than worrying about food advertisements and labelling, the government really need to pay more attention to the industrial food industry, which is making millions of pounds but potentially the highest contributor to this crisis.

These big food production companies pack foods with extra fats, salts, sugars and chemicals to enhance taste and increase shelf life, but often with very little nutritional value.

The foods are addictive and give a false sense of fulfilment, which make you eat more in the long run.

The government need to hold these companies to account for the health problems they cause and start working closely with them to change the way food is produced – this will go some [AV1] way in changing the picture for obesity in our country.

Differences in communities

Another issue when tackling obesity in individuals is that we cannot blanket everyone with the same intervention – we need targeted advice depending on the population.

Obesity rates and the way that obesity exists vary depending on race, gender and age.

Government figures are suggesting around 50% to 70% of BAME populations are obese, depending on their ethnicity. Thus in some populations the rate is lower than the national average of 60-64%.

It is also very clear that food culture in people of different ethnicities is different to the standard ‘Western’ attitudes.  People consume traditional food, cooked in traditional ways; this may be to maintain their culture identity, but some are also unfamiliar to the cooking methods of western foods. 

But whatever the reason, it is very clear that food is a very integral part of their lives.

It is important that we are aware of these eating behaviours to be able to give the right advice to help make lifestyle changes needed.

The solution

Workplaces have a big part to play in this ongoing battle such as providing healthy cafes and alternatives to the vending machine classics and allowing staff to take breaks for fresh air; parks need to be made clean and safe spaces to allow for free daily exercise and we all need to remember to eat a minimum of five fruit and vegetables per day.

The government also need more infrastructure to allow dietitians and nutritionists like myself to clinically help more people who need to lose weight and then maintain that loss.

Maybe dietitians and nutritionists could be as common as opticians and dentists.

We can’t just tackle one prong of the problem at a time. We need to make strategic decisions and changes that look at the whole picture.