Obesity: Did the 20-year policy have any effect?

The Prime Minister has launched a new policy on obesity in Britain.

This is not the first attempt to tackle the problem-at least a dozen policies or white papers have been published on this topic since 1997.

So did the goals and policies of 20 years have an impact?

Obesity reduction goals

In 2008, Wide report on obesity The goal was to improve diet, increase exercise, and create personalized help to tackle the problem.

We also introduced two major targets.

• Britain becomes the first major country to reverse the increasing trend of obesity
• Reduce childhood obesity levels to 2000 by 2020

World Health Organization (WHO) Have obesity measurements that work by taking samples of people from most countries, Look at their body mass index -Or BMI-Check if they were healthy weight for their height.

In 2008, 59.5% of UK adults over the age of 18 were overweight or obese.

By 2016, this figure was 63.7%. That is, at that time, Britain had the 30th highest proportion of overweight people in 191 countries listed.

Looking only at England, British annual health survey It suggests that 63% of adults over the age of 16 are overweight or obese.

However, although the obesity rate has increased significantly since 1993, it suggests that it is stable in recent years.

The second goal was to reduce childhood obesity.

Using the British Health Survey The proportion of obesity or overweight between the ages of 2 and 10 can be estimated to be the same as in 2000. That is a total of 25%. Over the same period, the proportion of overweight between the ages of 11 and 15 increased from 31% to 34%.

All of these results are research-based and will cause errors in the data.

2008, labor Government tried to make more accurate photos Assessment of childhood obesity by measuring almost all children at reception and year 6

This data shows a persistent increase in childhood obesity than the UK Health Study.

Conservative initiative Union created its own goals in 2011, By 2020, we hope that child obesity will continue to decline.

There are no data for 2020 yet, but no long-term decline.

Increase in PE at school

In 2002, the Labor Party government Introduced PE policy The purpose is to link the local school with a college of sports in the area.

The plan had the goal of reaching 85% of children who PE or play more than 2 hours a week by 2008.

Government said it exceeded goals -Reach an estimated 25% to 86% when the scheme is launched.

The plan was completed in 2010 by the Conservative and Liberal Democratic Union Government. They also said they expected the school to maintain its current level, but eliminated the need to record how much exercise was done at the school.

There is some evidence The time spent doing PE has decreased over the years since then -This is based on a survey of teachers and the number of hours taught by trained PE teachers.

In 2016 The Conservative Party -Use money from sugar tax-Sports and PE funding will increase.

In the same year, their children’s obesity plan also gave children You need to do more than one hour of exercise a day, At least 30 minutes at school and 30 minutes with parents and parents outside the school.

It is estimated that between 2018 and 19 years, nearly half of the children achieved that goal.

5 meals a day

5 day slogan It became a government policy in 2003.

Since then, Percentage of adults who eat 5 parts of fruits and vegetables per day According to the UK health survey by NHS, it has increased from about 24% to about 28%.

On average, adults ate 3.7 parts of fruits and vegetables per day, compared to 3.4 in 2003.

However, the ratio of less than 2 meals a day remains 27%, which remains almost the same.

Reduce obesity inequality

of Conservative government child obesity strategy “It is the least burdensome for low-income children,” he said.

Over the past decade, the disparity in childhood obesity levels between the poorest and the richest has increased from 8.5 points to 13.5 points.

No specific goals are given.

Obesity rates vary considerably across the UK-from more than 75% of all adults in Rotherham, Hartlepool, and Thurrock to less than 45% in Camden and the City of London.

Sugar tax

The UK taxed sugar-rich beverages in April 2018. Businesses have to pay:

• 24p per liter of drink if more than 8g sugar per 100ml
• 18p per liter of drink if it contains 5-8g of sugar per 100ml

The policy is Declared success Even before it was released, manufacturers were changing their drink recipes to avoid paying taxes.

From 2015 to 2018 The total volume of soft drinks sold containing at least 5g sugar per 100ml decreased by 50%, while the sales of beverages containing less than 5g per 100ml increased by 40%.

Since the start of taxation, the tax paid in each quarter has been higher than in the first quarter. This suggests that the reduction of sugar drinks sold is not continuing.

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