News • Children's Food Campaign
Doctors inject boost to campaigns for sugary drinks duty and junk food marketing restrictions
The British Medical Association’s strong support for a sugary drinks duty has rightly grabbed all today’s headlines. The doctors now join professional bodies representing dentists, dietitians, maternal and children’s health specialists and many public health experts in calling for a levy on sugary drinks.
Malcolm Clark, co-ordinator of the Children's Food Campaign, welcomed the launch of British Medical Association's Food for thought: promoting healthy diets among children and young people report:
"The BMAs' report ticks all our boxes. We welcome not only their whole-hearted support for a sugary drinks duty but also their desire to see the income generated used for initiatives which benefit children's health and the environment they grow up in. With Public Health England's recommendations on the need to reduce our daily sugar intake to be published imminently, the Government should be seriously considering all measures at its disposal – including a sugary drinks duty."
"However, the BMA’s list of recommendations on junk food marketing is just as significant. It is a vote of no confidence in the Government’s Responsibility Deal and any belief that industry can sufficiently change its practices on its own accord. Instead, the BMA joins us and the British Heart Foundation in calling for a whole suite of measures to close the loopholes in rules that currently allow the marketing of unhealthy food to children, and for the government to develop stricter regulations that cover all forms of media and the retail environment too."
"On issues ranging from junk food marketing, to school food standards, to the food available in hospitals, to mandatory standardised front-of-pack nutrition labelling, the BMA issues a bold but necessary agenda which the Government should take note of and implement."
The Children's Food Campaign is part of Sustain.
Published Monday 13 July 2015
Children's Food Campaign: Better food and food teaching for children in schools, and protection of children from junk food marketing are the aims of Sustain's high-profile Children's Food Campaign. We also want clear food labelling that can be understood by everyone, including children.
