Demi
Thu, Jan-30-14, 05:42
From The Guardian
London, UK
30 January, 2014
Fats and figures: what can be done to tackle the UK's obesity problem?
As a nation, we're getting fatter – and with obesity linked to a myriad of diseases the UK is facing a public-health 'timebomb'. So should retailers be doing more to promote healthy diets?
On 13 January this year, the National Obesity Forum's State of the Nation's Waistline report revealed that estimates made back in 2007, which stated that half the UK population could be obese by 2050, may have been "optimistic". If current trends continue, we might actually exceed that unwelcome prediction.
Obesity is linked to other health issues, such as diabetes and strokes, so the cliché of the "public-health time bomb" is probably apt. Britons are eating too much food in general, and too much of the wrong kind in particular. To what extent are retailers part of the problem, and the solution?
This was the subject of a recent roundtable event hosted by the Guardian, in association with Marks & Spencer, attended by experts from industry, research organisations and campaigning groups. The grocery market accounts for 54.9p of every £1 of UK retail spending, according to the food and consumer goods research organisation IGD, so supermarkets hold considerable sway over what people eat. Ready meals and the thousands of other products available in supermarkets have a real impact on public health.
The roundtable began by looking at what has improved over the past decade, such as the greater variety of healthy options available.
"When you look at what you can buy now at lunch compared to 10 years ago, there are many more options that make fruit and vegetables more convenient," said Claire Hughes, a nutritionist at Marks & Spencer.
"When we talk about healthy eating we always come at it from a taste angle – it has to taste delicious, so customers don't feel it's a compromise. Healthy eating should be the norm, rather than something you do a couple of days a week. We also have specific product ranges to help customers manage their weight: our Count On Us range, which we launched in 1999, is still on the market today and is increasingly popular."
Reducing salt
One area of real progress has been reducing the bad stuff in prepared foods, said Sue Davies, chief policy adviser at Which?. "Over the past 10 years, initiatives around product reformulation and reducing salt and saturated fat have made a big difference. Marks & Spencer were an early adopter of the traffic light system and it was amazing last year when we got the commitment from all retailers to putting traffic light labelling on the front of packaging. You will see that in every supermarket towards the end of this year and that will be really significant."
Adult daily salt intake has, in fact, fallen from 9.5g to 8.1g since 2005, following salt-reduction targets for the food industry set by the Food Standards Agency for 85 categories of food. But that's still above the target of 6g a day, so more has to be done. Reformulation of various kinds can help, but it clearly isn't enough. As Theresa Marteau, director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit at the University of Cambridge, said: "Never has so much low-fat food been sold to populations who have got bigger and bigger."
Why is that? It's obviously possible for most people to eat in accordance with official health recommendations, but few seem to manage it.
"It's up to people to make those choices, and clearly they're not doing it to the extent we'd want," said Judy Buttriss, director general of the British Nutrition Foundation.
Peter Rogers, professor of biological psychology at the University of Bristol, suggested that information on healthy eating is often unclear and there's a problem of "what individuals perceive as the thing they should be doing". But will more or better information translate into action?
For Marteau, it's the availability of unhealthy options that is part of the problem. "Our environments are stuffed full of opportunities for eating. You go into a bookstore and they're selling chocolate."
It seems to come down to the balance of responsibility between producers and retailers to make healthy diets more accessible, and consumers to make the right decisions. But many panel members felt retailers could do more to positively leverage their influence on public health.
The government's Public Health Responsibility Deal, launched in March 2011, was designed to help make that happen. With pledges on food, alcohol, health at work and physical activity, it has signed up dozens of producers and retailers. The pledges are voluntary, though, and some say the deal isn't making enough of an impact.
"When I've asked supermarkets about sweets at the checkout and other food promotion issues, they've said: 'We're going to wait and see what the Responsibility Deal says,'" said Malcolm Clark, co-ordinator for the Children's Food Campaign at Sustain. "The trouble is, we know from past experience that a lowest common denominator thing will be asked of them."
There's also the inescapable fact that supermarkets are in business to make money, and there is plenty of demand for unhealthy food and drink.
"For the majority of people, healthy eating is a fringe deal," said Pat Dade of Cultural Dynamics Strategy and Marketing. "They'll say: 'I don't care, give me a cupcake.'"
Is it, therefore, too optimistic to expect food retailers to embrace a role as custodians of public health? Jane Landon, deputy chief executive officer of the UK Health Forum, drew on the challenge of excessive alcohol consumption as an example.
"The problem is that alcohol is often sold as a way to get footfall. It's almost a loss leader. You use it to bring people in to do a regular shop."
If a retailer does try to do something good from a public-health perspective, it can be commercially unsustainable unless others follow its lead.
"Asda signed up to a pledge to remove the promotion of alcohol from the front of stores," said Marteau. "The trouble was, it worked. People bought less alcohol, so they stopped, because they're not there to improve the health of the population – they're there to turn a profit."
In a fiercely competitive sector, stronger regulation – going further than the Responsibility Deal – might be one way to tackle this.
"Where there is that tension, government needs to step in to make a level playing field," said Davies. "If everyone has to do it, it takes out the competitive element."
But healthy diets are not inherently unprofitable, some panel members argued. Retailers just need to draw on their expertise of what drives consumers to buy certain products. Store ambience, smells, and promotions all come into play. One easy positive step for retailers would be the positioning of healthy foods on aisle-end displays where people are more likely to choose them.
"Many people probably don't want to change their habits so we need to find a way to reduce the number of calories they're eating and improve their health," said Alexandra Johnstone, senior research fellow at the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, at the University of Aberdeen.
"I don't think consumers are going to be buying more or differently just beause it's labelled healthy, so this 'health by stealth' is important."
Duncan Williamson, senior food policy adviser at WWF UK, says this is essential if we're to have a healthy and environmentally sustainable food system: "We've been saying for years, eat more plants and wholegrain carbs. When we started going to retailers and producers, they all said: 'It's far too complicated, people don't want to eat that kind of thing.'"
But maybe people can change, and healthy, sustainable options can become the norm. For Tara Garnett, head of the food climate research network at Oxford University, that does mean tough calls to action, such as on eating less meat.
"One of the issues that comes up time and again is meat and the need to rebalance it," she said. "The food industry needs to stop thinking that meat and sustainability are taboo issues that touch at the core of Britishness."
James Murphy, editorial director at the Future Foundation, suggested that widespread change could happen through a kind of "social heroism" where people draw social and cultural status from "visibly parading the limits to what we consume".
But for now, retailers have more influence over our diets than any social heroes, and are in a position to build on the work they've already done in areas such as labelling and reformulation to help consumers live even healthier lives.
"Retailers know what drives buyer behaviour," said Zoe Griffiths, head of public health at Weight Watchers. "They have a great opportunity to make a positive difference."
In focus
A recurring theme at the roundtable was the lack of a strong evidence base on how retailers can influence public health. A 2013 systematic review by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US found only 33 studies of interventions in supermarkets to promote healthy eating, many of them weak. "Fat taxes" have made headlines in recent years, but more evidence on the relative effectiveness of taxing unhealthy food versus subsidising healthy food would help. At the same time, some panel members warned against lack of evidence being used as an excuse for inaction, pointing out that the process of getting the evidence is actually doing it.
At the table
Oliver Balch (Chair) Journalist
Sue Davies Chief policy adviser, Which?
Dr Alexandra Johnstone Senior research fellow, Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health,Uni of Aberdeen
Prof Judy Buttriss Director general, British Nutrition Foundation
Tam Fry Honorary chair, Child Growth Foundation
Jane Landon Deputy chief executive officer, United Kingdom Health Forum
Malcolm Clark Co-ordinator, Children's Food Campaign, Sustain
Tara Garnett Head of food climate research network, Oxford University
Prof Theresa Marteau Director, behaviour and health research unit, University of Cambridge
Dan Crossley Executive director, Food Ethics Council
Zoe Griffiths Head of public health, Weight Watchers
James Murphy Editorial director, Future Foundation
Pat Dade Owner, Cultural Dynamics
Claire Hughes Nutritionist, Marks & Spencer
Prof Peter Rogers Prof of biological psychology, University of Bristol
Liz Williams Food public relations manager, Marks & Spencer
Duncan Williamson Senior policy advisor, WWF
Roundtable report commissioned and controlled by the Guardian. Discussion hosted to a brief agreed with Marks & Spencer. Funded by Marks & Spencer. http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/fats-and-figures-uk-obesity
London, UK
30 January, 2014
Fats and figures: what can be done to tackle the UK's obesity problem?
As a nation, we're getting fatter – and with obesity linked to a myriad of diseases the UK is facing a public-health 'timebomb'. So should retailers be doing more to promote healthy diets?
On 13 January this year, the National Obesity Forum's State of the Nation's Waistline report revealed that estimates made back in 2007, which stated that half the UK population could be obese by 2050, may have been "optimistic". If current trends continue, we might actually exceed that unwelcome prediction.
Obesity is linked to other health issues, such as diabetes and strokes, so the cliché of the "public-health time bomb" is probably apt. Britons are eating too much food in general, and too much of the wrong kind in particular. To what extent are retailers part of the problem, and the solution?
This was the subject of a recent roundtable event hosted by the Guardian, in association with Marks & Spencer, attended by experts from industry, research organisations and campaigning groups. The grocery market accounts for 54.9p of every £1 of UK retail spending, according to the food and consumer goods research organisation IGD, so supermarkets hold considerable sway over what people eat. Ready meals and the thousands of other products available in supermarkets have a real impact on public health.
The roundtable began by looking at what has improved over the past decade, such as the greater variety of healthy options available.
"When you look at what you can buy now at lunch compared to 10 years ago, there are many more options that make fruit and vegetables more convenient," said Claire Hughes, a nutritionist at Marks & Spencer.
"When we talk about healthy eating we always come at it from a taste angle – it has to taste delicious, so customers don't feel it's a compromise. Healthy eating should be the norm, rather than something you do a couple of days a week. We also have specific product ranges to help customers manage their weight: our Count On Us range, which we launched in 1999, is still on the market today and is increasingly popular."
Reducing salt
One area of real progress has been reducing the bad stuff in prepared foods, said Sue Davies, chief policy adviser at Which?. "Over the past 10 years, initiatives around product reformulation and reducing salt and saturated fat have made a big difference. Marks & Spencer were an early adopter of the traffic light system and it was amazing last year when we got the commitment from all retailers to putting traffic light labelling on the front of packaging. You will see that in every supermarket towards the end of this year and that will be really significant."
Adult daily salt intake has, in fact, fallen from 9.5g to 8.1g since 2005, following salt-reduction targets for the food industry set by the Food Standards Agency for 85 categories of food. But that's still above the target of 6g a day, so more has to be done. Reformulation of various kinds can help, but it clearly isn't enough. As Theresa Marteau, director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit at the University of Cambridge, said: "Never has so much low-fat food been sold to populations who have got bigger and bigger."
Why is that? It's obviously possible for most people to eat in accordance with official health recommendations, but few seem to manage it.
"It's up to people to make those choices, and clearly they're not doing it to the extent we'd want," said Judy Buttriss, director general of the British Nutrition Foundation.
Peter Rogers, professor of biological psychology at the University of Bristol, suggested that information on healthy eating is often unclear and there's a problem of "what individuals perceive as the thing they should be doing". But will more or better information translate into action?
For Marteau, it's the availability of unhealthy options that is part of the problem. "Our environments are stuffed full of opportunities for eating. You go into a bookstore and they're selling chocolate."
It seems to come down to the balance of responsibility between producers and retailers to make healthy diets more accessible, and consumers to make the right decisions. But many panel members felt retailers could do more to positively leverage their influence on public health.
The government's Public Health Responsibility Deal, launched in March 2011, was designed to help make that happen. With pledges on food, alcohol, health at work and physical activity, it has signed up dozens of producers and retailers. The pledges are voluntary, though, and some say the deal isn't making enough of an impact.
"When I've asked supermarkets about sweets at the checkout and other food promotion issues, they've said: 'We're going to wait and see what the Responsibility Deal says,'" said Malcolm Clark, co-ordinator for the Children's Food Campaign at Sustain. "The trouble is, we know from past experience that a lowest common denominator thing will be asked of them."
There's also the inescapable fact that supermarkets are in business to make money, and there is plenty of demand for unhealthy food and drink.
"For the majority of people, healthy eating is a fringe deal," said Pat Dade of Cultural Dynamics Strategy and Marketing. "They'll say: 'I don't care, give me a cupcake.'"
Is it, therefore, too optimistic to expect food retailers to embrace a role as custodians of public health? Jane Landon, deputy chief executive officer of the UK Health Forum, drew on the challenge of excessive alcohol consumption as an example.
"The problem is that alcohol is often sold as a way to get footfall. It's almost a loss leader. You use it to bring people in to do a regular shop."
If a retailer does try to do something good from a public-health perspective, it can be commercially unsustainable unless others follow its lead.
"Asda signed up to a pledge to remove the promotion of alcohol from the front of stores," said Marteau. "The trouble was, it worked. People bought less alcohol, so they stopped, because they're not there to improve the health of the population – they're there to turn a profit."
In a fiercely competitive sector, stronger regulation – going further than the Responsibility Deal – might be one way to tackle this.
"Where there is that tension, government needs to step in to make a level playing field," said Davies. "If everyone has to do it, it takes out the competitive element."
But healthy diets are not inherently unprofitable, some panel members argued. Retailers just need to draw on their expertise of what drives consumers to buy certain products. Store ambience, smells, and promotions all come into play. One easy positive step for retailers would be the positioning of healthy foods on aisle-end displays where people are more likely to choose them.
"Many people probably don't want to change their habits so we need to find a way to reduce the number of calories they're eating and improve their health," said Alexandra Johnstone, senior research fellow at the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, at the University of Aberdeen.
"I don't think consumers are going to be buying more or differently just beause it's labelled healthy, so this 'health by stealth' is important."
Duncan Williamson, senior food policy adviser at WWF UK, says this is essential if we're to have a healthy and environmentally sustainable food system: "We've been saying for years, eat more plants and wholegrain carbs. When we started going to retailers and producers, they all said: 'It's far too complicated, people don't want to eat that kind of thing.'"
But maybe people can change, and healthy, sustainable options can become the norm. For Tara Garnett, head of the food climate research network at Oxford University, that does mean tough calls to action, such as on eating less meat.
"One of the issues that comes up time and again is meat and the need to rebalance it," she said. "The food industry needs to stop thinking that meat and sustainability are taboo issues that touch at the core of Britishness."
James Murphy, editorial director at the Future Foundation, suggested that widespread change could happen through a kind of "social heroism" where people draw social and cultural status from "visibly parading the limits to what we consume".
But for now, retailers have more influence over our diets than any social heroes, and are in a position to build on the work they've already done in areas such as labelling and reformulation to help consumers live even healthier lives.
"Retailers know what drives buyer behaviour," said Zoe Griffiths, head of public health at Weight Watchers. "They have a great opportunity to make a positive difference."
In focus
A recurring theme at the roundtable was the lack of a strong evidence base on how retailers can influence public health. A 2013 systematic review by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US found only 33 studies of interventions in supermarkets to promote healthy eating, many of them weak. "Fat taxes" have made headlines in recent years, but more evidence on the relative effectiveness of taxing unhealthy food versus subsidising healthy food would help. At the same time, some panel members warned against lack of evidence being used as an excuse for inaction, pointing out that the process of getting the evidence is actually doing it.
At the table
Oliver Balch (Chair) Journalist
Sue Davies Chief policy adviser, Which?
Dr Alexandra Johnstone Senior research fellow, Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health,Uni of Aberdeen
Prof Judy Buttriss Director general, British Nutrition Foundation
Tam Fry Honorary chair, Child Growth Foundation
Jane Landon Deputy chief executive officer, United Kingdom Health Forum
Malcolm Clark Co-ordinator, Children's Food Campaign, Sustain
Tara Garnett Head of food climate research network, Oxford University
Prof Theresa Marteau Director, behaviour and health research unit, University of Cambridge
Dan Crossley Executive director, Food Ethics Council
Zoe Griffiths Head of public health, Weight Watchers
James Murphy Editorial director, Future Foundation
Pat Dade Owner, Cultural Dynamics
Claire Hughes Nutritionist, Marks & Spencer
Prof Peter Rogers Prof of biological psychology, University of Bristol
Liz Williams Food public relations manager, Marks & Spencer
Duncan Williamson Senior policy advisor, WWF
Roundtable report commissioned and controlled by the Guardian. Discussion hosted to a brief agreed with Marks & Spencer. Funded by Marks & Spencer. http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/fats-and-figures-uk-obesity