Analysis of UK Government Policies on Obesity and Healthy Eating

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments. This report analyzes UK policies on obesity and suggests improvements.

POLICY BRIEF
Should we fund an advertising
campaign to encourage people to eat
more healthy diets?

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
According to a common saying, “Prevention is the best cure”, which has been explained in this
policy brief in its own sense. Healthy diet and lifestyle is the key to live a happy and prosperous
life. As the influence of attractive and compelling advertisements and promotional campaigns is
increasing on people choices and their preferences, this simple notion of the importance of
health is fading constantly. In this brief, a light has been drawn on important elements of
government initiated policies to contain the increasing problem of obesity as a direct result of
careless eating habits in youngsters and children. The focus has been kept on the population of
lower socioeconomic status, so in the process, a number of NHS initiatives and guidelines have
been discussed along with a specific set of recommendations which will help policymakers and
concerned institutions to approach the problem more efficiently.

SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM
The healthy diet is the first and foremost
requirement of people especially children
who have completely diverted from the
path of a healthy lifestyle and fitness.
Obesity is becoming a common condition
throughout the world. The advertisement
and promotional tactics utilised by fast food
companies are drastically misleading and
are having direct impacts on people’s
health and diet. The problem has been
found rooted too much depths in
developed countries like UK and US where
largely available options with lucrative ads
campaign are disruption people's
evolutionary habit of a healthy diet (Blake
et al., 2013). Instead of suggesting people
the options available to maintain their diet
healthy and safe, these commercials take
advantage of their needs and divert them
towards their so-called nutritious food.
According to the data accumulated from
National Statistics portal published on April
2018, in 2016/17, the total number of
admissions in NHS hospitals where obesity
was a major factor, was 617 Thousand
which was an 18% increase from 2015. The
scheme to gain healthy diet and food
prescribed a 5 portion of fruit and
vegetable consumption which is
recommended for children of 5 to 15 years,
and the statistical report says that about
49% of girls and 54% of boys are consuming
less than 3 portions a day (Department of
Health & Social Care, 2015).
This policy brief has focused on ways and
tactics which should be used to encourage
and promote people to eat healthy diets.
The discussion has emphasised on various
policies and regulations currently available
and changes and amends that are
necessary to achieve the objectives. It has
been noticed that the people of lower SES
are more prone to have affected by the
results of unawareness regarding healthy
diet and food policies that might help them.
There is a need for a dedicated plan to
avoid such results in these people from the
government's end.
POLICY ANALYSIS
As discussed in the above part, the
advertisement and promotional campaign
of today’s world have a huge impact on
people especially the young generation
who are constantly engaged with social

media and other digital platforms. If these
compelling techniques are being used to
mislead the public from getting proper and
healthy diet then same techniques can also
be used t
o encourage the involvement of green
vegetables, beans, low-carbohydrate and
low sugar content food items in people’s
diet (Banks et al., 2012).
The National Health Service of the UK has
released a guideline on its official website
regarding the causes and treatment of
obesity which is a rapidly growing
phenomenon in the UK. The unmetered
consumption of high-calorie food items and
high sugar content drinks are getting
extremely common in school and college
students resulting in less fatigue and
numerous related disease along with
depression. According to NHS the basic
measurement criteria for obesity called
Body Mass Index (BMI) has revealed that
most of the adults in the country are under
either overweight or obese condition which
ranges between 25 to 39.9 BMI (NHS,
2019). The current nutrition policy of the
UK has specifically emphasised on this need
that the easy options and freedom shall be
provided to all to opt healthy diet options.
In the sequence, this policy has prescribed
the use of a new mark called “Healthier
Food Mark” liked to all standard food items,
especially packed, in the public sector. To
enact this mark effectively the charge was
given to Food Standard Agency, to take
action against food item suppliers who
violate this norm (Department of Health &
Social Care, 2015).
In another policy relating to obesity and
healthy eating, according to stats, 61.9% of
adults and 28% of children aged between 2
to 15 are either overweight or suffering
serious obesity conditions. This not only

impacts their working efficiency but the
consistency in decreasing performance also
results in mental degradation and
depression. However, this policy mainly
involves people of lower SES, but it is also
true that they are the one more affected by
the negative impacts of poorly governed
policies.
ROLE OF NHS AND SHORTFALLS
NHS has released a number of guidelines
suggesting people how to maintain their life
healthy and fit and to avoid fast and junk
food items inconsistency. NHS has
suggested people eat a healthy diet and
drinking more water instead of high calorie
carbonated drinks and liquor.
Apart from suggestion through their online
web portal, NHS has started “Change4Life
Program” to provide people first-hand
advice on how can they maintain their diet
and physical activities without putting
additional efforts and time (NHS, 2019).
Another initiative has compelled food item
manufacturers to print on their label what
exactly the food item is and what are its
contents. They are also instructed to put
the nutrition value on their label along with
the recommended consumption guidelines.
However, after all these efforts and many
more like these, the trend is still increasing
with 18% growth in the patients of obesity
and its borne diseases. The reason which
can be easily identified is the failure of NHS
in effectively advertising and promoting
these suggestions and initiatives (NHS,
2019). NHS has not utilised digital
technology and social media platforms to
spread awareness of this health-related
advice and suggestions. Considering the
impact of social media on people's
behaviour and their consistent involvement
with internet-based interactive platforms, a
significant amount of investment is
required to see any positive results on the
ground. NHS spent more than £5 billion
every year on health problems related to
overweight and obesity (NHS, 2019). Even a
fraction of this amount would be sufficient
for all activities related to the
encouragement of preventive health
policies and guidelines. Although NHS has
made sufficient efforts to bring awareness
among people of lower socio-economic
status, these efforts are still highly
undistributed resulting in uneven results
and waste of resources in the way.
WAYS TO ENCOURAGE HEALTHY DIETS

The Public Health Department under the
government of the UK has released another
guidance book called "The Eatwell Guide”,
which is prepared to define the
government’s recommendations on healthy
diet and lifestyle.
This guide book has been released in the
number of formats and has been adapted
as a replacement of Eatwell Plate, a
previous version of the similar manner (The
Eatwell Guide, 2018).
This guideline is quite a long version
defining every aspect of diet for all major
and minor age groups, gender and people
with specific medical conditions. The whole
guideline is based on 5 food groups with
suggestions of what to eat and how much
of it (The Eatwell Guide, 2018).
Discussing the ways which could be utilised
for encouragement purposes, the major
requirement to spread this awareness is
among students and children and the best
way to do so is, to begin with, their school.
Promoting these guidelines regarding the
benefits of a healthy diet and how to
achieve it through school programs and
conferences could be among the initial
steps. Further, help can be taken from
different influential personalities of
television and social media, news channels
and famous political and motivational
figures of the country to spread the
message on behalf of the government of
the UK. People of lower SES can be easily
targeted in these schemes since they are
the one in most need of communicating
this message among them and become
enlightened for their own sake.

It is necessary to tell the public that these
irregular habits of consuming a higher
amount of calories and carbohydrates could
not only cause obesity but obesity usually
becomes the foundation for serious
diseases like Type 2 Diabetes, Coronary
heart diseases, different types of cancers
such as breast cancer and bowel cancer and
stroke (Department of Health & Social Care,
2015). These are the very few examples
among the many more health conditions
like depression, sleep disorders and low
self-esteem. A huge campaign is needed to
begin with proper preparation and use of
the most efficient technologies in the
market in the field of advertisement and
promotion. NHS has also initiated a Couch
to 5K running program for people of all age
groups which is a 9 weeks course. The
activities and regulatory diets followed for 9
weeks consistently should make a person
able to run 30 minutes non-stop which is
usually 5 KM for the average person (The
Eatwell Guide, 2018).
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
The discussion made above provides critical
details and analysis of all the major active
policies of the government of the UK to
prevent people from the problem of obesity
and encourage a healthy diet in their
lifestyle. Before recommending the
improvements and ideas for a better policy
framework, there is a need to gather
knowledge of what NHS suggests for
treating obesity and promoting a healthy
diet,
According to NHS recommendations, the
best way to reduce obesity is to eat a low-
calorie and healthy diet and exercise daily.
The diet regulation should be prescribed by
the assigned GP of the person or another
weight loss health professional. Guidelines
also suggest joining local walking and
jogging clubs and other weight loss clubs.
Take up activities which include full body
exercise like swimming, tennis, jogging and
running, for at least 5 hours a week (NHS,
2019). The population of lower
socioeconomic status are the most
vulnerable to these obesity caused
problems since they also have a high
workload and causes of tension and stress
around them.
Now the recommendations which could
tactically suggest the need of NHS and
government of the UK to fund an

advertisement campaign which could
spread the message and recommendations
by the government regarding healthy diet
and preventive actions for obesity and
related diseases, are:
 The policy should exclusively keep a
separate budget for advertisement
and promotion of government's
initiatives and guidelines.
 NHS should make collaborations
with local bodies, schools, colleges,
official workplaces, government
departments and NGO’s to support
their agenda and help them spread
the awareness. There are many
mediums which could be
implemented for this task like digital
platforms, TV and Radio, Books and
News Papers, smartphone
marketing etc.
 A mobile application should be
launched and marketed for the
people, which interactively provide
all details, suggestions and
recommendations for a healthy diet
and life.
 NHS can also invest in opening food
store which provides low-calorie
healthy food at a low cost for
everyone in a public place like parks,
near schools and colleges, near
government offices etc.
 The government should ban all such
advertisements and promotional
campaign which attracts children to
consume their high-calorie drinks
and food items in the name of their
healthy and nutritious contents.
CONCLUSION
The need of funding advertisement
campaign for telling people to eat a healthy
diet and live healthy life has been found
crucial as the study of stats and their
analysis has presented some serious
problems which will become challenges in
no time. The problem of obesity and over
weightiness is growing in the country with
more than 18% in adult and children which
is a direct result of their fast and junk food
habits and high-calorie intake in the form of
sugary fruit drinks and carbonated
beverages. The main reason which has
been identified in first sight is the

misleading advertisements and lack of
awareness among people of the young
generation and kids regarding the
importance of healthy lifestyle and ways to
achieve that which ultimately supports the
requirement of funding for the
advertisement campaign in this direction.

REFERENCES
 Department of Health & Social Care, 2015. 2010 to 2015 government policy: obesity and
healthy eating. Online available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2010-
to-2015-government-policy-obesity-and-healthy-eating/2010-to-2015-government-
policy-obesity-and-healthy-eating, Last accessed on 5 April 2019.
 The Eatwell Guide, 2018. Online available at
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-eatwell-guide, Last accessed on 5
April 2019.
 NHS, 2019. Online available at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/obesity/, Last accessed
on 5 April 2019.
 Blake, H., Zhou, D. and Batt, M.E., 2013. Five-year workplace wellness intervention in
the NHS. Perspectives in public health, 133(5), pp.262-271.
 Banks, J., Williams, J., Cumberlidge, T., Cimonetti, T., Sharp, D.J. and Shield, J.P., 2012. Is
healthy eating for obese children necessarily more costly for families?. Br J Gen Pract,
62(594), pp.e1-e5.
 Garthwaite, K.A., Collins, P.J. and Bambra, C., 2015. Food for thought: An ethnographic
study of negotiating ill health and food insecurity in a UK foodbank. Social science &
medicine, 132, pp.38-44.