Make school food healthy
Obesity levels in the UK have more than trebled in the last 30 years, with poor diet causing more ill-health and earlier deaths than smoking.
This comes amidst a further £200m government cut from the public health budget, which will put back efforts to protect and improve the nation’s health and well-being.
Particularly worrying is that poor diet is such a feature of our children’s lives.
In Wigan, more than a third of children are obese or overweight by the time they leave primary school.
This is not acceptable.
We must create an environment where it is normal, easy and enjoyable for children and young people to eat healthily.
Addressing the commercial influences that have such a strong impact on diet – such as the advertising of unhealthy food and drink – will be key, but beyond regulation, schools need to be supported in creating a healthy food environment. Despite strict food regulations for local authority schools in England, over 3,500 academies and 200 free schools do not have to meet the same standards, raising concerns that children in these schools are more likely to be served poorer quality food.
A new survey from the BMA has revealed that three quarters of parents in the North West back calls to ensure food served at academies and free schools meets the same healthy standard as other state schools, while eight out of ten support calls for a free piece of fruit or vegetable to be provided daily to school children up to the age of 11.
The government must act now and do everything in their power to decrease the level of obesity and reduce the substantial burden of diet-related ill-health in the UK.
Professor Sheila Hollins
Board of Science chairman
British Medical Association
Playing a poor game
Should we rename the much-hyped English Premier League something more appropriate, which reflects the lack of footballing ability of these grossly overpaid children stuck in adult bodies?
Teams from our self-proclaimed ‘best league in the world’ met European opposition recently and came a distant second.
We have a league awash with money from Sky and BT (which comes out of our pockets).
The major clubs are all foreign-owned, none seem to employ English managers and few top sides feature more than a token English player. We cannot have any national team which is going to be successful without our youngsters being able to play, and there is no chance of this.
Self-interested owners and managers have nothing to do with the national team.
To them, releasing players for international games is an inconvenience.
Welcome to the world of ‘English’ Premier League football!
Darryl Ashton, Address supplied
Going back not so bad
Well, if good old Jeremy has done nothing else, he has given the cheap tabloids endless amusement, digging up reams of nonsensical past deeds of either his, or some long-gone relative of his.
One has some relative oppressing the poor in a long-
All obviously true, if the papers say so.
The bit that rang the loudest bell for me, was penned by Richard Madeley.
He reckons Corbin will, given the chance, transport us back to the 1970s.
I wouldn’t mind, I had never heard of Richard Madeley in the 70s!
Happy days .
Allan Fazackerley via email