{"id":51103,"date":"2021-10-08T15:18:03","date_gmt":"2021-10-08T14:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=51103"},"modified":"2021-10-08T15:18:03","modified_gmt":"2021-10-08T14:18:03","slug":"turning-the-tide-the-obesity-health-alliances-healthy-weight-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/10\/08\/turning-the-tide-the-obesity-health-alliances-healthy-weight-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning the tide: The Obesity Health Alliance\u2019s healthy weight strategy\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tides are notoriously difficult to turn. But, when the time is right, even the strongest tides will turn\u2014and now is one of those critical moments in relation to overweight and obesity in the UK. This follows 30 years of piecemeal action by governments to address a preventable health crisis that has become even more apparent during the covid-19 pandemic. Covid-19 has shone a light on the underlying health problems that make many of us more vulnerable when a new disease threatens population health and health systems that are already overstretched.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA)\u2014a coalition of 45 leading health charities and medical royal colleges\u2014launched their new report <\/span>“Turning the Tide: A 10-Year Healthy Weight Strategy\u2019”<\/span><\/a> for the UK. Obesity rates have increased significantly across the UK over the last 30 years, despite <\/span>14 government health strategies since 1991 that have set targets for obesity reduction in England<\/span><\/a>, with similar failed efforts in the devolved nations. In total, these strategies contained <\/span>689 recommendations<\/span><\/a>. Today, the majority of adults in England\u2014<\/span>68% of men and 60% of women\u2014<\/span><\/a>are above a healthy weight, and over a quarter are living with obesity (27% of men and 29% of women). Excess weight prevalence is highest among the lowest socioeconomic groups in both adults and children.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The OHA\u2019s strategy<\/span><\/a> was developed over two years by a working group chaired by Anne Johnson. Through a process of consensus-building, informed by a series of evidence reviews and expert papers, the strategy includes 30 recommendations for action in the years ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n

It notes that the commercial food system has fundamentally changed over the second quarter of the 20<\/span>th<\/span> century. The key goal of this food system was to eradicate hunger and ensure adequate food supply, however it has led to a complex adaptive system in which the need for readily available and accessible food has driven an explosion of ultra-processed foods that are highly palatable and heavily marketed to both <\/span>meet and drive consumer demand<\/span><\/a>. This has altered what we eat and how we behave in the same way that commercially mass produced cigarettes made smoking a normal part of life for the vast majority last century. Smoking resulted in hundreds of thousands of preventable premature deaths in the decades that followed until <\/span>governments took action<\/span><\/a> and changed the system to prevent smoking uptake and support existing smokers to quit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>evidence is clear<\/span><\/a> that the drivers of healthy weight are even more complex than those involved in tobacco use. The <\/span>obesogenic environment<\/span><\/a>, to which we are all exposed to from infancy onwards, whereby calorie-dense, nutrient poor food is readily accessible, abundant, affordable, and normalised, and physical activity opportunities are not easily available, affects us all. The pervasive and ubiquitous <\/span>advertising and promotion<\/span><\/a> of unhealthy food and drinks allows industry to “set the tone” of our food environment, creating, and maintaining this obesogenic environment that makes it inherently difficult to achieve a healthy diet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Obesity cannot be addressed one person at a time, and behind the statistics are people living with obesity who often experience <\/span>stigma and discrimination<\/span><\/a> that can affect their mental health and willingness to access healthcare. Stigma stands in the way of public health and must be eradicated.<\/span><\/p>\n

The strategy<\/span><\/a> makes recommendations across key areas: 1) stigma; 2) food and drink products; 3) the marketing mix; 4) pricing; 5) the environment; 6) advertising and promotions; 7) early years; 8) management, treatment and support; and 9) improved policymaking processes. Each of these areas require addressing in their own right, but combined the recommendations set the clear, long-term, evidence-informed agenda needed to turn the tide and improve healthy weight across the UK population. The 30 recommendations made are set out in a “KIND” framework, aimed at building on existing policy progress as well as identifying new routes for action. The KIND framework includes:<\/span><\/p>\n