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PROGRAMME INFO |
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From amaranth to zabaglione, Sheila Dillon and Derek Cooper investigate every aspect of the food we eat. |
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LISTEN AGAIN |
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PRESENTERS |
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- Derek's biography
- Derek's interview
- What do you know about Derek? |
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"Cooper is a man with tremendous gusto and passion for the pleasures of life and food, but he is also a man who has a blazing fury with those who are responsible for allowing our food supply to have become so contaminated and with those countless others who accept this state with apathy and disregard."
Journalist Colin Spencer |
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CHILDHOOD OBESITY
The Chief Medical Officer has called the rise in childhood obesity a health time bomb. Children are for the first time developing maturity onset diabetes, and there are fears that parents may start outliving their children. Doing nothing is not an option, but what can be done to stop this trend?
Sheila Dillon explores the dilemma of nanny state versus individual choice in changing the food habits of a nation. Is it time the government introduced unpopular measures to make our children eat more healthily?
Consultant Paediatrician Dr Penny Gibson, adviser on childhood obesity to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, outlined the medical and social problems of this epidemic.
Dr Gibson highlighted that today’s ‘obesogenic’ environment of reduced activity and excessive opportunities to eat unhealthy food makes it very difficult for children today to have a healthy lifestyle and to lose weight. More government action is needed to tackle this problem and intervention will need to be big to be effective.
Two young people struggling with their weight explained how they feel about their situation and what they would like to see improved to help them be a healthier weight.
Children currently spend over £400m pounds a year on snacks and drinks on their way to and from school. The National Audit Office, has estimated that obesity costs UK taxpayers £2.5bn pounds a year.
The Economist magazine, recently published a special food survey. Britain editor Emma Duncan was the author and she explained the economic impact of the obesity epidemic and the reaction and concerns of the food industry.
In the United States, 60% of adults are now obese or overweight. Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition at New York University, and author of Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition is a long-time campaigner in the fat wars. She stressed the problem of super-size portions, and the excessive consumption of soft drinks - ‘liquid candy’ - that contain calories and nothing else, which it’s thought can be easily over-consumed because the body can not compute the additional calories that it’s taking in.
The state of Texas has one of the highest proportions of obese people in the USA. The rise in childhood obesity and the potential health costs that would result, helped trigger a recent battle to improve the food in Texan schools.
Republican agricultural commissioner, Susan Combs with the support of the governor imposed new rules controlling the sale in schools of what they call Foods of Minimum Nutritional Value—FMNVs, and tackled clauses in the vending machine contracts that dictated what could be sold and the high percentage of 20oz drinks (each bottle contains 60g refined sugar) they were required to sell to the children.
Sheila interviewed 17 year old Seraphina Evans who took part in last year’s Channel 4 documentary That’ll Teach ‘Em and lived for a month with 29 others in a recreation of a 1950s state boarding school—doing their ‘O’ levels and eating the food of the time. She lost 11lb in the month, on a filling diet of porridge, stews, suet puddings and the occasional spam fritter.
Many of the children lost weight without trying to, which she thought was because they did more exercise (three compulsory PE lessons a week) and by eating fixed meals and snacking less.
Sheila was joined in the studio by Sir John Krebs, director of the Food Standards Agency, Tim Lobstein of the International Obesity Task Force, and the Food Commission, and Martin Paterson from the food industry trade group, the Food and Drink Federation.
Sheila then asked Public Health minister Melanie Johnson what the government was doing to tackle the obesity epidemic.
Extra information:
Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (California Studies in Food & Culture) by Marion Nestle, published by University of California Press, ISBN 0520240677.
The Food Standards Agency has announced details of a public debate to discuss food promotion to children and the effect it has on poor diets and rising levels of childhood obesity.
The debate takes place on Tuesday 27th January, 2004 and is being chaired by broadcaster Jeremy Vine.
On the panel with be student and youth activist Kierra Box; Andrew Brown, Director General of the Advertising Association; Dr Susan Jebb, Head of Nutrition and Health Research at the Medical Research Council; Richard Reeves, business writer and consultant, and celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson.
The debate is being held at the QE2 conference centre in Westminster, central London, and runs from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. Members of the public are invited to attend, with tickets available in advance only.
Tickets can be obtained online, or telephone 01772 767751 or email foodandchildren@glasgows.co.uk.
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