World Cancer Day is on 4th February and it gives the world the opportunity to come together to raise awareness and campaign on key issues to improve the care, support and treatment given to patients.
Organisers, the UICC, announced that the theme for World Cancer Day is #IAmAndIWill and this theme highlights that fact that whoever you are, you have the power to reduce the impact of cancer for yourself, the people you love and for the world.
The campaign therefore encourages everyone to make a commitment by using the hashtag and sharing who you are and what you will commit to in order to tackle cancer.
Our #IamAndIWill Commitment for 2019-2021
Our World Cancer Day commitment is to focus on children and raise awareness of the fact that overweight or obese children are more likely to become overweight or obese adults, and being overweight as an adult increases a person’s risk of developing cancer. In fact, the World Cancer Research Fund has found that being overweight or obese throughout adulthood is linked to an increased risk of developing 12 types of cancer.
Our campaign appeals to parents to reduce their children’s future cancer risk by ensuring they’re a healthy weight now, and this can be achieved by ensuring that children:
Are physically active and take part in 60 minutes of physical activity every day
Eat a healthy diet
Childhood obesity is a significant challenge here in St Kitts and Nevis. A PAHO report revealed that 33% of secondary school children in the twin island state were overweight and 14% were obese. More recently, in 2017, a UNICEF report stated that 26% of children in St Kitts and Nevis are obese. We have to tackle childhood obesity to improve the health of our children to ensure they become happy, healthy adults.
We believe that by beating childhood obesity we can also contribute to beating cancer, and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
“I am Lake Health and Wellbeing and I will make an impact by spreading the word
about childhood obesity increasing a child’s future cancer risk” – #IamAndIWill
What We’re Doing Beyond World Cancer Day
Our work doesn’t stop after World Cancer Day, we’re working to beat childhood obesity all year round through our new childhood obesity prevention project.
We’re currently working on developing innovative resources to get children active so they can easily get to and maintain a healthy weight.
How You Can Get Involved
You can get involved by raising awareness on social media and sharing your thoughts on this issue. You can use any of the images below or the short video clips below.
Also, we’d love it if you could support us by making a donation, which will go towards our childhood obesity prevention project.
You can make a donation below:
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Thank you for any support you’re able to provide and we hope you’ll join us for World Cancer Day to #BeatChildhoodObesity and #BeatCancer
On 20th November 2018, we were on the beautiful island of Barbados for the Healthy Caribbean Coalition’s ‘Beyond the Call to Action Event: Towards School Policies in Support of Childhood Obesity Prevention.’
This event marked the end of the HCC’s childhood obesity prevention campaign. One of the key parts of this campaign was the HCC’s childhood obesity prevention petition (Call to Action) which called on Heads of Government to enact any of the following policies and legislation which have been demonstrated as effective measures to combat childhood obesity:
Imposition of a tax of not less than 20% on Sugar Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) and use tax revenue for NCD prevention and control.
Banning the sale, promotion and marketing of SSBs, and unhealthy foods and beverages in and around schools.
Mandatory physical activity in all primary and secondary schools
Adoption and application of regional standards for nutritional and front of package labelling of foods and beverages.
Banning the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children (includes non-school environments)
Enacting legislation related to The International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.
This event brought together a wide cross section of national and regional stakeholders to celebrate the achievements of the campaign and to showcase all the great work being conducted across the Caribbean to tackle childhood obesity. We heard from speakers from the Bahamas, Bermuda, Jamaica and Trinidad. It was particularly interesting listening to Dr Simone Spence’s presentation explaining Jamaica Moves’ new initiative targeting schools.
Youth Involvement
It was also very nice to see young people actively participating in this event. Young people took part in a parallel youth session led by Krystal Boyea, the HCC’s Youth Advocate. In this session young people discussed the solutions and barriers to creating a healthy school environment and also explored the types of products sold in schools and how the school environment influences behaviour and health.
We really enjoyed this event and would like to thank the HCC for inviting us to take part in the panel discussion. We look forward to hearing more about the work being conducted across the Caribbean to tackle childhood obesity and making our own small contribution to this effort.
On 1st November, we attended the national consultation on the impact of sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs). This event was organised by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) as an early step towards the development of the nation’s strategy for reducing the public’s consumption of SSBs.
The Ministry’s strategy for SSBs forms just a small part of their non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention plan which outlines actions that are needed to create a healthy environment and promote exercise.
Speakers Set the Scene
During the consultation we heard from an excellent panel of speakers which included:
Mrs Delores Stapleton-Harris, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health
Hon Wendy Phipps, Minister of State with Responsibility for Health, Community Development, Social Services and Gender Affairs
Dr Godrey Xuereb, PAHO/WHO Representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean
Dr Keisha Liddie, District Medical Officer
Dr Lisa Powell, Professor and Director of Health Policy and Administration, School of Public Health, University of Illinois
Dr Marissa Carty, NCD Coordinator, Ministry of Health
Together the panel outlined the need for the development of a strategy on SSBs, reminding the audience that in St Kitts and Nevis NCDs, such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease and high blood pressure, are a major health challenge with 83% of deaths in the Federation being attributed to these conditions.
Hon Phipps described how NCDs are not only a threat to the health of the nation but are a significant socio-economic issue. Whilst Dr Xuereb provided information on the need for a SSB policy stating that it is just one of many strategies to improve the health of a nation and help countries achieve the sustainable development goal (SDG) on health. He stated that in order to achieve the SDG on health it is important to focus on improving the health of children as currently, in the Caribbean, childhood obesity is very common and is a major factor in children developing NCDs. He explained that what is driving NCDs is the increased consumption of sugar, and the major source of sugar is SSBs – SSBs make up 40% of children’s sugar intake with 70% of children in the Caribbean drinking one or more SSBs per day. He stated that data from Barbados, Mexico and Chile has shown that increasing the cost of SSBs through taxation has reduced the consumption of SSBs and therefore this is an effective strategy in tackling NCDs.
We also heard from Dr Keisha Liddie who presented a very in-depth and comprehensive situational analysis of St Kitts and Nevis. Dr Liddie described the data and trends for NCDs in the Federation showing the increase in the incidence of specific NCDs year on year and their impact on the nation. Finally, Dr Powell explored the economics, practicalities and important considerations when introducing a tax on SSBs and provided a number of recommendations which included:
Implement a 20% SSB tax
Include all forms of SSBs in the taxation strategy e.g: soda, energy drinks, sports drinks, fruit drinks, sweetened teas/coffees, sweetened water and beverage powders/syrups). Exclude zero calorie beverages
Apply the tax to all imported and domestically produced SSBs
Earmark the tax revenue for public health initiatives with an emphasis on nutrition and physical activity
Carry out public awareness and education to inform the public about the SSB tax and its objectives
Ban the sale of SSBs in schools
Ban the sale of SSBs in hospitals and government buildings
Regulate the marketing of SSBs in and around schools
Develop a drinking water infrastructure in schools that provide reusable water bottles to school children
Provide local agricultural products as snacks in schools
Promote the implementation of school gardens as a learning tool and to improve access to fruits and vegetables
Explore appropriate sponsors for youth sports that align with the objectives of improving health
Provide funding to increase activity spaces
St Kitts and Nevis’ Proposed Approach to SSBs
Dr Marissa Carty outlined the Ministry’s initial ideas on their approach to reducing the consumption of SSBs and gave the audience the opportunity to provide feedback on all the policy areas. The Ministry’s proposed policy imperatives include:
A 40% tax on SSBs (update: the proposed tax is now 32%)
The tax will apply to calorically sweetened beverages including carbonated drinks (sodas), sweetened carbonated water, sugar sweetened juices, sports drinks, energy drinks, tea and coffee drinks, sweetened milk/milk alternatives, milk powdered blended drinks, powdered drink mixes and drink mix syrups
Sugar would no longer be zero rated when it comes to tax
Excludedfrom the tax would be: fresh fruit juice (no sugar added), unsweetened milk/milk alternatives, infused water, unsweetened carbonated drinks and non-caloric sweetened drinks
Alternatives to SSBs will be suggested to the public. These would include: fruit/vegetable infused water unsweetened water, plain water, unsweetened carbonated water, unsweetened herbal (bush) tea and artificially non-caloric sweetened beverages
Thetax revenue will be used to provide: a water infrastructure, water fountains in schools, reusable water bottles in schools, healthier school meals, public health campaigns, National Health Insurance, implementing a marketing ban to children and policy development for safe school zones.
Our Thoughts
We 100% support the government’s approach to SSBs as there is a need to tackle childhood obesity in St Kitts and Nevis and by reducing SSB consumption this can be achieved.
We believe a 40% (or 32%) tax is sufficiently high enough to deter consumption of all SSBs, anything lower than this could lead to consumers simply replacing expensive SSBs for more affordable SSBs. There was some evidence of this in Barbados where the tax is 10% and this suggested that this level of taxation wasn’t high enough to deter consumers from buying the lower priced SSBs.
We think it is important that the revenue raised from the SSB tax should fund public health initiatives particularly those that are aimed at childhood obesity and so we applaud the Ministry’s suggestions on the use of the tax revenue. We would also like to see the tax revenue being used to make healthy foods more affordable to ensure that parents and guardians don’t encounter any barriers to adopting healthy eating practices. It is also important for there to be full transparency on the expenditure of the tax revenue so that the public can be confident that the funds have been used to benefit the public’s health.
Next Steps
The Ministry of Health will collate the feedback received from this consultation as well as the consultation conducted in Nevis and continue to engage with key stakeholders to develop their SSB policy. This will then have to be approved by Cabinet.
We look forward to seeing this policy develop and will support the Ministry in any way that we can to see this policy developed, approved and implemented.
The Body Mass Index (BMI) is a method used throughout the world to determine whether a person is at a healthy weight for their height. It is calculated by dividing a person’s weight by the square of their height giving a value that is expressed in kg/m2. It tends to be used as a measure of a person’s total body fat.
People are assigned to one of four BMI categories (shown below) which helps to identify whether they are overweight or obese.
Underweight – less than 18.5
Normal weight – 18.5 to 24.9
Overweight – 25 to 30
Obese – 30 and over
It has been a useful, easy method of exploring weight and body fat, but its limitations are well known. Criticisms of it include:
It doesn’t take into account factors such as age, sex and ethnicity
It doesn’t look at the type of fat a person has
It doesn’t differentiate between excess fat, muscle mass or bone mass
This means that the BMI may overestimate the amount of body fat athletes and body builders possess and underestimate harmful body fat in people who have a normal BMI.
Children and BMI
When looking at children, a different scale is used that takes into account the fact that children are constantly growing, and that boys and girls develop differently, so the BMI scale for children takes into account age and sex.
Researchers in the UK have found that the scale for children doesn’t accurately reflect the obesity levels in black and Asian children living in the UK. This is a problem as we can’t accurately identify children who will be at higher risk of health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease later in life.
Research into Children, BMI and Ethnicity
Researchers in St Georges and University College London, funded by the British Heart Foundation started work in this area a few years ago and published their work in March 2017.
Having identified that BMI may not be providing accurate measurements for ethnic minority children they sought to develop a method to adjust BMI values based on ethnicity.
In order to create the BMI adjustments they had to go back to basics and look at the actual body fat measurements of children. They identified 1,728 children aged 4 to 12 years old. They then explored the relationship between BMI and body fat in each ethnic group (White European, Black African and South Asian). Using this data they were able to calculate the BMI adjustment needed for each ethnic group.
From their work they were able to confirm that BMI underestimated body fat levels in South Asians and overestimated body fat levels in Black Africans.
Based on their findings the research team developed a BMI calculator for children with an adjustment for ethnicity. Parents, teachers and healthcare professionals can use this simple tool to obtain accurate BMI readings for black and Asian children.
The research team followed up this work with research that they published in November 2017. This was a larger piece of work to explore the extent of the problem of using BMI in assessing the body fat of children.
They used data from the National Institute of Health Research’s National Child Measurement Programme. Every year this programme assesses the weight of children in the UK who are aged 4-5 years old and 10-11, and attend a state-funded primary school.
The research team applied their new BMI adjustment to the weight measurements for children weighed between 2012 and 2013. This included 583,899 children aged 4-5 years old and 485,362 children aged 10-11. Their findings are summarised in the tables below.
Percentage of boys who were overweight or obese
Ethnicity
% Overweight and Obese
Without Ethnicity Adjustment
With Ethnicity Adjustment
4-5 years old
10-11 years old
4-5 years old
10-11 years old
Black African
31%
42%
11%
32%
South Asian
19%
42%
39%
52%
White European
23%
33%
–
–
Percentage of girls who were overweight or obese
Ethnicity
% Overweight and Obese
Without Ethnicity Adjustment
With Ethnicity Adjustment
4-5 years old
10-11 years old
4-5 years old
10-11 years old
Black African
29%
45%
12%
35%
South Asian
19%
34%
35%
44%
White European
21%
30%
–
–
Their results showed that the BMI overestimated the percentage of black children who were overweight or obese by 10-20% (depending on age and sex) so a significant number of black children are being misclassified in the government’s national weight assessment programme.
They concluded that BMI does not accurately reflect body fat in ethnic minorities and by using adjustments a more accurate measurement of the body fat can be determined.
Our Thoughts
This body of work highlighted the gaps that exist in medical research and the problem of using one ethnic group as a standard for health. This work clearly shows the need to explore ethnicity and health, it demonstrates that by not taking race and ethnicity into account key differences are being masked and we therefore don’t have a true picture of the health of our community.
Last week was World Obesity Day and to mark the occasion researchers released global estimates of childhood and adolescent obesity levels. The publication of this data aimed to give a flavour of where we are with the health of children throughout the world and initiate action on tackling childhood obesity. The study pulled together data from 2,416 sources and this covered information on the height and weight of 128.9 million people aged 5 and over from 1975 to 2016.
Overall the data showed that globally the number of obese children increased by a factor of 10 from 1975 to 2016. If we put that into numbers the number of obese girls (aged 5 to 19) rose from 5 million in 1975 to 50 million in 2016, whilst the number of obese boys increased from 6 million to 74 million.
Interestingly, when we look at specific regions across the world, we see that Polynesia and Micronesia have the highest childhood obesity levels and the lowest levels are seen in south Asia and east Africa.
It was also noted that whilst there are high levels of obesity amongst children worldwide a significant number of children are moderately or severely underweight – 75 million girls and 117 million boys. The majority of these children are in South Asia, specifically India.
What’s happening in the Caribbean?
The Caribbean is also included in this study with 18 countries explored. This included Antigua & Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, Barbados, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname.
When all the data for the Caribbean was pooled together, the data was somewhat promising in 5-9 year olds with the average BMI (Body Mass Index) for Caribbean boys and girls being on the lower end when compared to other countries. For example, the average BMI for girls aged 5-9 in the Caribbean was found to be about 16kg/m2. This was the 6th lowest out of 21 countries. The highest being about 20 kg/m2 in Polynesia and Micronesia, the lowest being 14.5kg/m2 in East Africa and South Asia.
When looking at the older age group of 10-19 year olds, the data is not so promising with Caribbean children being on the higher end of the scale. For example, the average BMI for Caribbean boys aged 10-19 was about 21.5 kg/m2, the 6th highest out of 21 countries. The highest being almost 24 kg/m2 in Polynesia and Micronesia, the lowest being 18 kg/m2 in South Asia
As well as looking at the average BMI, the researchers explored the prevalence of obesity in different countries and again some countries in the Caribbean are ranked amongst the highest with countries like Bermuda and Puerto Rico having an obesity prevalence in girls of over 20%.
Conclusion
This work confirms what is widely known in the Caribbean and other countries, childhood obesity is a problem and needs to be tackled with some urgency. On paper the solution is easy: get children active and improve their diet, but in reality due to a number of factors such as culture, income, motivation and opportunity the solution is difficult and complex.
We all need to work together to determine how best we can address this problem by encouraging the Caribbean to see the benefits of their traditional way of life before Western culture and food were embraced. We have to make physical activity a part of life and turn back to home-grown, unrefined, home-made food.
Over the past month or so we’ve had the opportunity to attend a number of interesting events to discuss a range of health issues and in today’s blog, we’ll give you a quick summary of a childhood obesity event we attended a few weeks ago.
Reducing Childhood Obesity
On 18th January, we attended the Croydon Children, Young People and Families’ Network reducing childhood obesity event. This event brought together organisations in Croydon who are tackling childhood obesity to share experiences and also to understand Croydon’s new childhood obesity strategy.
The main speaker on the day was Bernadette Alves, Consultant in Public Health at Croydon Council, who took us through the Croydon Healthy Weight Action Plan for Children and Young People which aims to cover their plans from 2017 to 2020.
The Scale of the Problem
Bernadette Alves started by setting the scene with some background information stating that childhood obesity is a major priority for Croydon being one of their five main priorities for children in the borough. She explained that obesity causes children harm impacting their physical health, mental health, behaviour and day-to-day life (such as school attendance). She explained the extent of the problem telling us that 20.3% of children in reception (4-5-year-olds) are overweight or obese and 39% in year 6 (10-11-year-olds). When we look across the borough there is a lot of variation with Broad Green, New Addington, Selhurst and Thornton Heath having the highest levels of year 6 obesity levels and Sanderstead having the lowest year 6 obesity rate.
Croydon’s Action Plan for Childhood Obesity
We then heard how Croydon Council aims to tackle childhood obesity with their new strategy. Bernadette explained that their core priorities would be :
Sugar: to sign a sugar declaration and develop a borough wide sugar smart approach
Targeting and Integration: they will ensure that services are targeted to those most in need and develop an integrated interactive pathway of all services that are available to support children to reach and maintain a healthy weight
Physical activity: roll out the Daily Mile campaign to schools
Engagement of residents and the community: they will raise awareness of the impact of childhood obesity and support and empower residents to make behaviour changes.
The Council’s action plan, at the time, was in a draft phase and going forward they were conducting a consultation on the plan; the deadline for this was the end of January. We also learnt that a Healthy Weight Steering Group was set up and is being led by Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group and Croydon Council; they will monitor the implementation of the action plan.
Unhealthy High Streets
Following Bernadette’s presentation there was time for questions and one of the issues raised was the large number of unhealthy takeaway restaurants in close proximity to schools. In response to this Bernadette stated that there is a lot of work being conducted to create healthier high streets. She acknowledged that there is a major issue with fast food chains being placed near schools that target children with very cheap deals on their products. Even data from the Royal Society of Public Health has shown that Croydon has a particular problem with Central Parade in New Addington being the second most unhealthy high street in London.
Developing Better Relationships Between Local Government and Charities
Another issue that was raised during the Q&A was the lack of communication between small groups and the Council. It was felt that there needs to be a better working relationship between community groups and the Council that would enable all organisations working in this field to work effectively together, reduce duplication and align their objectives with the local approach. It was felt that the Council could provide more support to community organisations that goes beyond providing funding through their grants programmes but promoting projects and working in collaboration to ensure that projects are successful.
The event ended with a networking session where we could learn about the work being conducted by local community groups and charities.
This was a really interesting event and provided some good insight into local plans for tackling childhood obesity.
Yesterday, the UK Government published its childhood obesity action plan which sets out its strategy to significantly reduce obesity levels in children over the next ten years.
Childhood obesity is a major problem in the UK with nearly a third of children being obese or overweight. There are a number of factors that have contributed to this and these include behaviour, our environment, culture and genetics.
The government’s action plan makes an important observation which is that obesity levels are highest in children from low-income families. Research has shown that 5 year olds in the poorest families are twice as likely to be obese than their affluent counterparts and by the age of 11 they are three times more likely to be obese. We need to address this inequality.
The government’s action plan aims to provide a good balance of reducing childhood obesity whilst respecting the public’s freedom of choice when it comes to food selection. They also clearly state that this action plan is a starting point rather than a complete final plan.
A Summary of the Action Plan
Introducing a sugar levy (the sugar tax)
Soft drinks companies will pay a levy on drinks with added sugar. This will apply to drinks with a total sugar content above 5 grams per 100 ml. A higher rate will be applied to drinks with more than 8 grams per 100 ml. The levy won’t be applied to milk-based drinks or fruit juices. The levy will come into effect from April 2018.
Soft drinks manufacturers will have two years to reduce the sugar content of their drinks so they won’t be taxed if they are successful. The government states that there has already been some success with some manufacturers already reducing sugar in their drinks.
The money raised from the sugar levy will be used to double the funding available to primary schools for PE and sports programmes. The government has estimated the sugar levy will raise £320 million a year for primary schools to support healthier more active lifestyles in children. The funding will not only go towards expanding PE and sports programmes but to also expand breakfast clubs in primary schools ensuring that children have access to a healthy breakfast every week day.
The idea behind the sugar levy is a good one. It’s hoped that the levy will incentivise the soft drinks industry to reduce the amount of sugar in their products, helping the public consume less sugar. The money raised will go towards helping children get more active and healthy and thus tackle our high rates of childhood obesity. So, from a public health point of view the sugar levy is a win-win.
Taking out 20% of sugar in products
The government will be slowly reducing the sugar content in everyday products and will launch a sugar reduction programme to reduce sugar in products that are popular with children. All sectors in the food and drinks industry will be challenged to reduce the sugar in their products by 20% by 2020, this will include a 5% reduction in year one. Their recommendations to the food and drinks industry are to:
Reduce sugar in their products
Reduce portion sizes
Use lower sugar alternatives
The sugar reduction programme will focus on nine areas: breakfast cereals, yoghurts, biscuits, cakes, confectionery, morning goods (such as pastries), ice cream and sweet spreads. They will then move on to other foods and drinks such as milk-based drinks and they will ensure that they focus on ranges that target babies and young children.
The government will monitor progress and publish reports every six months to determine if manufacturers are on track to achieve the 20% reduction.
The action plan also makes the point that sugar reduction should also mean calorie reduction and manufacturers should not increase the saturated fat content of their products.
We like the sugar reduction programme with its clear targets and hope that the manufacturers will comply and work with the government to achieve this. The issue we see is that manufacturers have no strong incentive to take part in this programme and may continue as is. Also, we know some manufacturers don’t appreciate the government interference in the way they do business and may not comply out of principle – they think it will set a nanny state precedent.
Supporting innovation to help businesses make healthier products
The action plan summarises how the government is supporting businesses in making healthier products. This includes: a £10millon investment to support research that explores new processes and products to increase the availability of healthy food choices; the formation of the Agri-Food Technology Council to provide leadership in health, nutrition and consumer acceptability; and the formation of the Food and Drink Innovation Network which brings together the food and drinks industry, researchers and innovation support to enable greater take up of world-leading R&D.
Updating the nutrient profile
The current nutrient profile which gives foods a score based on their sugar, fat, salt, vegetables, nuts, fibre and protein content is 10 years old and needs updating. It does give parents a view on how healthy their food is and enables them to make healthier choices, but work is needed to update it so it is in line with today’s scientific advice.
The government will therefore work with academics, the food and drinks industry, charities and other stakeholders to update the nutrient profile.
Making healthy options available
The action plan talks about the potential of the public sector to make a significant contribution to reducing childhood obesity. They state that every public space from leisure centres to hospitals should serve healthy food. The government has committed to working with their local government colleagues to ensure that this will happen.
Helping low-income families in purchasing healthy foods
The government will continue with their Healthy Start Scheme which provide vouchers to low-income families, these can be exchanged for fruit, vegetables and milk. The scheme also provides vitamins during pregnancy and early years.
Encouraging children to take part in one hour of physical activity every day
The government aims to support schools in using the funding raised by the sugar levy on sports programmes that have the maximum impact possible and guidance will be developed on how best to implement school PE, sports and healthy lifestyle programmes. Support will also be given to schools to ensure they have access to high quality sports and physical activity programmes. Additionally the government will continue to invest in making it safe for children to walk and cycle to school.
Encouraging healthy eating in schools
The government will introduce a voluntary healthy rating scheme to recognise the work being done in schools to ensure that children are eating healthy and getting active. There will be a focus on continuing to improve school meals through the School Food Standards and breakfast clubs will continue to provide children with a healthy start to the day.
Other measures
Other areas the government will focus on are: clearer food labels, making use of technology in the form of apps and other digital resources, for example the sugar smart app and exploring how health professionals can support families.
Conclusions
We are very happy to see the government publish its childhood obesity action plan, and we see it for what it is: a starting point.
We believe that it is a good starting point and are particularly happy to see the sugar levy; the sugar reduction plan; the investment being made in research and development to support businesses in making their food healthier; the support given to schools to ensure kids are active and healthy during school time; and the support given to low-income families.
We hope that everyone will play their part so that this plan is successful and we hope that the government will continue to develop its strategy to ensure that all areas are addressed.
