The joint Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has taken a initiative to protect children from developing long-term unhealthy eating habits. In support to this initiative, UK government asks suggestion about proposals to ban online adverts for food that are high in fat, sugar and salt to tackle the obesity crisis.
The new consultation, six weeks long starts this week, will gather views from the public and industry stakeholders to understand the impact and challenges of introducing a total ban on the advertising of these products online, to help people live healthier lives and tackle childhood obesity. “We know as children spend more time online, parents want to be reassured they are not being exposed to adverts promoting unhealthy foods, which can affect eating habits for life,” said UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
An official statistics says, almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of adults in England are overweight or living with obesity – and one in three children leave primary school overweight or obese, with obesity-related illnesses costing the National Health Service (NHS) 6 billion pounds a year. The government said it is highly urgent to tackle obesity and brought to notice when COVID 19 related risk gets increased in obese patients. Nearly 8% of critically ill patients with COVID-19 in ICUs have been morbidly obese, compared with 2.9% of the general population.
