Parents are focus of new childhood anti-obesity education campaign
Sarah Boseley reports that parents who fail to control what their children eat because of their busy lives, social pressures or lack of knowledge are the focus of a new anti-obesity campaign launched by the government today. This follows a report from the Medical Research Council’s human nutrition centre linking bad parenting to obesity in children. The report identified four areas in which parents need supp
Parents often have no idea that their child is overweight and know little about the damage that it could do to their health.
Parents sometimes think changing to a healthy lifestyle would be too difficult
Parents are under pressure to provide unhealthy food not just from advertising but from their child
Parents think it is not easy for the children to have an active lifestyle as sporting activities can be expensive and playing out may be dangerous
The new strategy is aimed at parents with children under 11. It begins with a campaign to encourage parents to try to get young children to eat more fruit and vegetables, featuring the actor Patsy Palmer.
(Guardian, p13, Sarah Boseley, ΒΌ page)
