Child Health: Play

Lord McColl of Dulwich Excerpts

Monday 12th October 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

I wonder whether Members of this House might like to set an example in that regard as well by running a mile a day. There is no doubt that exercise is good for you. Not only is it good for all the problems associated with weight but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that exercise helps with mental health problems. Whether you are running or on your bike, I am wholly in favour of it.

[Lord McColl of Dulwich (Con)]

My Lords, although exercise is very important in terms of the heart and so on, the real answer is to eat fewer calories. We may criticise politicians of one party, but does the Minister realise that politicians of all three parties kept on saying that the answer to the obesity epidemic was exercise when it was nothing of the kind? It was eating fewer calories.

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

Clearly, my noble friend is right: nutrition and diet are fundamental to the whole debate about obesity. That does not alter the fact that exercise is also very good for you.