OPINION ON SUNDAY: We must stem tide of obesity

THE giants of the chocolate and fast food industries have told MPs that they are not to blame for encouraging children to become overweight.

In response, the Chairman of the Health Committee at Westminster, David Hinchcliffe, suggested that burgers should carry tobacco-style health warnings. That's not a bad idea.

Obesity in young people is potentially the biggest threat to health in the UK and Ireland. Children as young as two have been shown to have the first signs of fatty deposits in their arteries - a stark warning of heart disease in the future. As the Food Standards Agency has pointed out, this is a ticking time bomb that none of us can ignore.

Every High Street and virtually every shopping centre has a fast food outlet. Children are enticed into eating junk food with toys or special offers. Many of our schools now have vending machines in their corridors dispensing crisps, chocolate and sugary drinks.

One chocolate company recently offered young people free sports equipment in return for empty wrappers. At the time, we calculated that a 10 year-old child who earned a basketball would have to spend 90 hours playing the game to burn off the calories he had consumed.

This cynical sales campaign - roundly condemned by health groups including the Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke Association - aimed to encourage schoolchildren to buy 160 million extra chocolate bars, the fat a staggering two million kilograms.

No matter where they go, our children have no escape from the relentless marketing machine. As the father of a three year-old son I know how difficult it is to steer him past the bright advertisements for fast food, the neon signs, the high sugar, high salt and high fat processed foods on the supermarket shelves, and the sweets at some checkouts.

The food industry has another trick up its sleeve - marketing foods as "healthy" when in fact they contain huge amounts of sugar or above average amounts of fat. Some fruit drinks fall into this category. On the shelves they look like fresh juice, but only on examination of the contents will you discover that they are mainly water and sugar. Similarly, some cereal bars - designed to replace breakfast - are not all they appear to be.

But the food industry knows that most people don't examine lists of ingredients carefully. That's why it has been able to get away with so much for so long.

The most shocking fact of all is that today's children are likely to live shorter lives than their parents. Even faced with the deprivations of war, the children of the 1940s had healthier diets and took more exercise than some of their modern counterparts.

In common with around 40 other organisations in the UK, we in the Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke Association is supporting the campaign - a national initiative designed to keep every child free of avoidable heart disease until the age of 65. It is a vast undertaking, and will require a massive change of thinking throughout society, from the Government down to the individual family. It seeks:-

To make health promotion a requirement in all schools

To establish a national inquiry into the impact of advertising and other promotions (particularly of food and tobacco) on family and child health

To involve children and young people in policy making, both nationally and locally

To introduce national targets for the quality and uptake of schools meals

To address the role that poverty plays in poor diet and unhealthy lifestyles.

In my view, there are some things that could be done quickly to achieve fast results.

The Government could make better and simpler food labelling a legal requirement. Let's face it, grams of fat mean nothing to most people. But the words "high", "medium" and "low" would. The idea of health warnings on some foods is sensible.

We could ban advertisements for high fat, high sugar and high salt foods during children's television programmes. Food companies could be barred from marketing certain products with the help of celebrities (footballers and crisps come to mind) or cartoon characters.

Schools - and some of them are doing this already - could remove vending machines and tuck-shops from their corridors. They could also introduce reward schemes for healthy eating and exercise.

Just as importantly, parents should encourage their children to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. In addition, they should try to persuade them not to skip breakfast. Recent research at Oxford Brookes University found that a breakfast with a low sugar index, such as bran, porridge or muesli, prevented children from snacking later in the day. Taking youngsters everywhere by car also does them no favours.

The food industry has it within its gift to make a huge difference. But judging by the squirming and wordplay demonstrated by its representatives in front of the Commons Health Committee, I won't be holding my breath for action.

In the US, television advertising, non-stop marketing and consumer culture have collided with devastating effect. We are heading the same way here. Far from offering our children freedom of choice, we are serving them up the risk of an early death.

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