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Big business 'triumphs' over children in obesity strategy

The long-awaited strategy to tackle childhood obesity fails to acknowledge the critical early years, causing widespread disappointment among child health and early years experts.

While the report highlights that nearly a third of children aged two to 15 are overweight or obese, putting them at greater risk of health problems in later life, it focuses heavily on primary-age children.

Restrictions on advertising and promotional deals on junk food have also been removed from the plan which was published by the Department of Health today. This is despite Public Health England’s insistence that this would be the most effective way to stop the rise in overweight children.

Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston, formerly a doctor, branded ‘Childhood Obesity: A plan for action’ as a ‘triumph for industry lobbyists’ and added that ‘big interests have trumped those of children’. But public health minister Nicola Blackwood, launching the plan, said: ‘This Government is absolutely committed to reducing childhood obesity.’

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