Obesity: Food and Diet

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Monday 20th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Dr Opher]

Yes, I could not agree more. As I said in the debate on education, we should be careful about the food industry sponsoring school breakfasts. As I pointed out, there is no such thing as a free breakfast. Companies often make unhealthy and addictive food and get young people addicted to it, so we must be cautious.

I wanted a recipe to solve this crisis and what I am suggesting comes from evidence from Nesta and the House of Lords Select Committee. It should be mandatory that all stores report on the food healthiness of their sales. We need a fully independent Food Standards Agency. We should have a ban on advertising junk food, as has already been proposed, and there should be a watershed for children—that is incredibly important. As is planned in Scotland and Wales, there should be a ban on price promotions, particularly for unhealthy foods, ultra-processed foods and takeaways. We also need to put a lot more resource into breastfeeding and diet in pregnancies—remember the carrots—and we must regulate formula feeds.

One measure, which has worked with the drinks industry in reducing sugar, is a reformulation tax on foods that are high in sugar and salt. Supermarkets and food companies would reformulate their foods to avoid the tax, thereby making them healthier. My hon. Friend the Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi) mentioned breakfast clubs. There is a lot of evidence that free school meals and breakfast clubs reduce obesity. Where free school meals have been introduced in London, childhood obesity has been reduced by 11%. That is because the food is healthy and a healthy hot meal is really important, rather than high-calorie snacks, which are what a lot of packed lunches consist of. If we cannot have free school meals, because of financial problems, we should have auto-enrolment so that children who should be on free school meals actually get enrolled. That would benefit schools, too.

We must have mandatory front-of-packet labelling. I have never met a parent who does not want to buy healthy food for their children. The trouble is that they pick up a packet of cereal and it says, “High in iron and filled with vitamins,” and think it must be healthy. Nothing could be further from the truth, so we must have accurate labelling. Healthy school foods should be sourced locally. In Stroud, I have been working closely with local primary schools to encourage them to eat fresh, locally grown, highly nutritious food. I think the Government’s target is to procure at least 50% of food in schools from local sources.

Then there is the famous hospital food. I was recently in hospital with a relative, and I can tell the House that hospital food is not healthy. We had white-bread sandwiches and some crisps—that was our healthy snack. We must introduce healthy foods in hospitals.

Takeaways are another big barrier to healthy eating—there was a massive explosion in their use during the covid pandemic—and we need to include them in any regulation. As I have said, in Scotland and Wales a ban on takeaway price promotions has been proposed. On average, those in deprived areas order more takeaways than those in non-deprived areas. We certainly must not let takeaway outlets open near schools—that is a planning must.

I would also caution against the treatment of the obesity crisis with injections of drugs such as Ozempic, which could well turn out to be dangerous.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

According to today’s press, there is clear evidence of that. Apparently, 400 people across the United Kingdom who took Ozempic experienced poor health as a result. It is not for everyone, and the sooner that people know that, the better.

[Dr Opher]

The hon. Gentleman’s intervention reminds me of the GP I took over from—an old chap; very wise—who said, “Always be a few years out of date, Simon, because we never know what these new drugs are going to cause.” I think that is good advice—not that I am suggesting that doctors are out of date, of course.

Are we proposing the creation of a nanny state? That is the great fear of many people when they are confronted by controls of this kind, but let us look at what happened with the ban on smoking inside pubs. People—particularly in Ireland, but also in England—were saying, “This is crazy; it is never going to work”, but it worked fantastically well. We need to be aware of the vested interests of food companies, and we need to take radical steps.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank everyone for their contributions so far. In particular, I thank the right hon. Member for Wetherby and Easingwold (Sir Alec Shelbrooke) for his contribution. It was a very personal story, and when we tell a personal story in this Chamber or anywhere else, it always carries more weight—that is not a pun, by the way. It carries a different focus, and I thank the right hon. Gentleman for sharing that story. We all thank him for sharing it, because it may inspire others outside this Chamber who find his words wise and helpful.

I am happy to speak in this debate. I declare an interest as a type 2 diabetic; my story of diabetes is personal to me, but it is one that many go through. I have experienced the health problems that a fast food diet brings. When I discovered I was a type 2 diabetic back in 2008, I weighed some 17 stone. I was in the Northern Ireland Assembly. We were at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, and I had been to see my doctor, because I had some pains that men get in certain places and I had some concern over them. Dr Mageean phoned me in Edinburgh and said, “Jim, I’ve good news for you. Do you want the good news or the bad news?” I said, “Well, Dr Mageean, give me the good news first. That’ll get me on good form.” He said, “The good news is that you’ve got a heart like an ox. The bad news is that you’re a diabetic.”

Why had I become a diabetic? I did not recognise it, because I did not know what diabetes was. I was a diabetic probably a year before the doctor told me that day. I lived on Chinese meals five nights per week and two bottles of Coke. The sugar content was extreme, and I was 17 stone. Doctor Mageean told me, “Jim, it is up to you how you handle this.” His very wise words to me were, “Jim, it is up to you what you do, but if you do not do the right thing, it will progressively get worse.” I went on a diet that day, and I lost an extreme amount of weight. Along with that, I of course had fairly high stress levels.

I was able to make those changes and I lost 4 stone in weight, which kept me stable for a while. Then I went on to the Metformin tablets, the Linagliptin tablets, the Jardiance tablets and all the other ones. In the morning I start with nine tablets and I finish the day with five. Many others will do similar things, because that is how we keep alive and how we manage it. Coffee became a substitute. I drink copious cups a day. I used to drink 12 cups of coffee a day, and I have reduced that to six, mostly in the morning, with five before 11 o’clock. There are probably side effects from drinking too much coffee as well.

I tell all these stories to make the point that the right hon. Member for Wetherby and Easingwold made. He said that we have to do it ourselves, and we do. That is how it works, although I understand some people cannot. Over the years, I have helped numerous people with gastric band operations. They have all been successful, and it has helped those people. They had special circumstances, and they were able to lose weight. The hon. Member for Lagan Valley (Sorcha Eastwood) referred to food banks, and my food bank in Newtownards can give diabetic food to those who have diabetes, and those foods can help to manage diabetes.

I remember my mum telling me when I was a child, “Always eat your carrots, and your eyesight will never go astray.” Well, it did not work for me. It was not an issue for me, because I love carrots and I love vegetables. The carrots did not do me any good, but my mum did perhaps engrain in me the necessity to eat greens—the six a day, or five a day as it was. My lifestyle was unhealthy, which led to lifelong consequences. It also means that I understand how very easy it is for convenience and a lack of time to lead to an unhealthy option, which is why I would like to focus on how we can make healthy meals more accessible.

I am aware that it can be daunting as a parent with young children to try to work out healthy options that children will eat which are also affordable and do not take too long to make. It is clear that more work needs to be done to help young families, particularly to get the skills to cook and to create good eating patterns in families of all incomes. I am really pleased to see the Minister in his place and I look forward to his answers, because he is aways constructive in his answers. My son and daughter-in-law are staying with us and they have two children—Freya four and Ezra two and a half—and, as a grandfather, I have noticed that they had their children eating their vegetables from a very early age, which helps get that focus in place at an early stage.

One of my local residents associations, Scrabo residents association, in conjunction with Ards community network, have used funding to put on classes for families to learn how to cook in a cost-effective and healthy way. Their fun, innovative and informative classes helped with budgeting and planning, and they know they were successful. However, as so often, the Government funding for that process has no longer continued. There is therefore less of an incentive for those volunteer groups in the community network to do that, which is a problem. Can the Minister give any indication of whether he and his Department are prepared to target that area to help families understand that there is a way to save money on healthy food?

The latest data for Northern Ireland shows that 27% of adults and about one in 16 children, or some 6%, are living with obesity, and the development of obesity is strongly linked to deprivation. The hon. Member for Lagan Valley referred to deprivation, and it is so important for people to have a decent wage to buy the right food to look after themselves. Between 2011-12 and 2018-19, one in three or 36% of primary year 1 children living in the most deprived areas were more likely to be overweight or obese compared with those living in the least deprived areas. That represents a 12 percentage points increase since 2012, when the figure was 24%. It is now 36% of primary year 1 children, which is a real problem for us in Northern Ireland, although I am sure those figures are replicated on the mainland. Obesity also increases the risk of developing chronic diseases such as colon cancer, high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes, and it is linked to substantial direct and indirect costs estimated to be in the order of £370 million in Northern Ireland in 2009. What are those costs today?

I look to the Minister to consider the approaches that I have referred to. As he and others know, I always try to be constructive in my comments and in describing what we have done in Northern Ireland. What is available to help communities put on the training, and help people realise that healthy eating is not just for those who can afford to shop at wholefoods and organic groceries, but for all of us, and that it can be easier to cook such food in the daily struggle of feeding our families? Obesity is a ticking time bomb; we need to defuse it with a co-ordinated and joined-up approach, and funding is the foundation of that.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Andrew Gwynne)]

I am grateful to the Backbench Business Committee for ensuring that this debate took place, and I am particularly grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) for securing it in the first place. I am also grateful to all Members for their valuable contributions. We have heard speeches from across the House, including from my hon. Friends the Members for Bolton South and Walkden (Yasmin Qureshi), for Chelsea and Fulham (Ben Coleman), for Ilford South (Jas Athwal), for Swindon North (Will Stone), for Liverpool West Derby (Ian Byrne), for Washington and Gateshead South (Mrs Hodgson), for Worthing West (Dr Cooper), for Southend East and Rochford (Mr Alaba), for Blackpool South (Chris Webb), for Bathgate and Linlithgow (Kirsteen Sullivan), for Dudley (Sonia Kumar), for Dartford (Jim Dickson), for Mid Cheshire (Andrew Cooper) and for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley).

On the Opposition Benches, we heard from the right hon. Member for Wetherby and Easingwold (Sir Alec Shelbrooke), who I have to say looks so healthy as a consequence of the medication he is taking. I remember what he looked like before—he is a shadow of his former self. We also heard from the hon. Members for Newbury (Mr Dillon), for Chester South and Eddisbury (Aphra Brandreth), for Caerfyrddin (Ann Davies), for Honiton and Sidmouth (Richard Foord), for Lagan Valley (Sorcha Eastwood), for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and for Stratford-on-Avon (Manuela Perteghella), and then obviously from the Opposition spokespeople for the Liberal Democrats and the official Opposition.

The United Kingdom has an obesity crisis. It poses serious challenges to our health, adds preventable pressure on the NHS, and restricts our economic productivity. I am reassured that none of us in the Chamber today underestimates the scale or importance of the task ahead, and we all recognise the need for action. I am proud that this Labour Government have already acted on manifesto commitments in several key areas, as I will outline, but I am also aware that much more needs to be done.

Over two thirds of adults are living with excess weight, and around 36% of children are living with obesity or are overweight by the time they leave primary school. That is appalling, but while it is shocking by itself, that average hides the deep inequalities we see in obesity. Children living in poorer areas are more than twice as likely to be living with obesity than those living in the least deprived areas. That has a huge impact on our lives, increasing the risk of many serious diseases—as we have heard—as well as exacerbating mental health issues and reducing the years that we and our loved ones can expect to live in good health. Almost 22% of all working-age people are economically inactive, and much of that is due to long-term health conditions caused or exacerbated by obesity. The cost of obesity-related conditions to the NHS now stands at £11.4 billion a year, and the cost to wider society is a staggering £74 billion every year.

I am so proud that we are committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever. That means going further on prevention and tackling the drivers of obesity. Over recent decades in the UK, food and drink that is calorie dense, nutrient poor and less healthy has become cheaper. It is vital that we ensure our policies continue to drive companies to make food and drink healthier. That is why this Government took action to uprate the soft drinks industry levy in the October Budget. That levy has already taken thousands of tonnes of sugar out of the drinks we consume every day, and I give credit to George Osborne, the Conservative Chancellor in the coalition Government, who introduced that measure. Uprating the levy is a key part of keeping it effective and continuing to drive reformulation towards healthier products.

However, this is not just about what is in our food and drinks; less healthy foods are more heavily promoted, marketed and advertised than ever before. One third of the food industry’s advertising budget is spent on marketing confectionery, snacks, desserts and soft drinks, while only around 1% of that budget is spent on marketing fruit and vegetables. It is therefore not a surprise that our children want to eat those products. One study estimated that 6.4% of UK childhood obesity is attributable to junk food TV advertising. That is why this Government have already met our manifesto commitment to lay the secondary legislation required to ensure the ban on junk food ads targeting our kids comes in from October this year. This includes a 9 pm TV watershed for the advertising of less healthy food and drink products, and a restriction on paid-for online advertising of all these products.

[Jim Shannon]

The Minister is giving a very comprehensive response, and it is much appreciated. One of the things I asked for in my speech—I know he will do this, but I think we could probably do it better—is to look at initiatives in each of the regions of Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales that could complement the policy driven from here. Is it the Minister’s intention to do that with the regional Administrations?

[Andrew Gwynne]

The advertising regulations of course cover the whole of the United Kingdom, but this Labour Government have a good working relationship with the devolved Governments in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We have the intergovernmental ministerial meetings, and we have been liaising closely on a whole range of public health measures, including the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, directly with ministerial counterparts in the devolved Governments. I want that relationship to deepen and mature because that is good governance across the whole United Kingdom.

We know that our chances of accessing healthy food depends on where people live. Children living in less affluent areas see five times more fast-food outlets on their high streets. That is why it is so important that strengthened the new national planning policy framework. Local authorities now have clearer powers to block fast-food outlets near schools, and also where children and young people congregate, to stop the relentless targeting of children and young people by the fast-food industry. Making the healthier choice the easier choice is a major part of achieving our shift to prevention. We will continue to look at ways to support people to make and sustain changes in their diet in line with the Government’s “Eatwell Guide”.

This may be a good point at which to clarify our position on ultra-processed foods. There are concerning associations between ultra-processed foods and negative health outcomes, including obesity. However, where the evidence is not yet clear is whether the negative health outcomes are due to processing or to these products tending to be high in calories, sugar, saturated fat and salt. I want to reassure hon. Members across the House that many ultra-processed foods are already captured by the existing healthy eating advice, policy actions and regulations relating to HFSS foods. Our scientific advisory committee on nutrition continues to monitor the evidence on ultra-processed foods, and we will commission further research where needed.

In my last few minutes, I will turn to a number of the issues that have been raised. First, just to reassure the shadow Minister, porridge oats will not be banned. The majority of porridge, muesli and granola products will not be affected by the restrictions, but some less healthy versions with added sugar, chocolate or syrup could be affected. To be in scope, products must fall within one of the categories of food and drink set out in the schedule to the advertising regulations and be defined as less healthy by the 2004-05 nutrient profiling model. For example, categories include but are not limited to soft drinks with added sugar, savoury snacks such as crisps, breakfast cereals, confectionery, ice cream and pizza. Despite recent media reports, the majority of porridge products will not be affected.

The right hon. Member for Wetherby and Easingwold made a really important point about stigma, and he is absolutely right that we really have to tackle stigma. Our genetics and our will power have not changed in the last 50 years. What has changed is the food environment and that we are bombarded with marketing for unhealthy foods. We already know that the issue is even worse in some of the poorer communities.

Finally, my hon. Friend the Member for Chelsea and Fulham and the hon. Member for Caerfyrddin mentioned accessibility to healthier affordable food. No child should live in poverty; that is why our ministerial taskforce is exploring all levers available across Government to give children the best start in life. We will tackle food insecurity by rolling out free breakfast clubs in every primary school and continuing to provide free healthy food during the holidays for children who receive free school meals. It is really important that we continue with that.

There is no silver bullet for obesity. This debate has shown that obesity is not just about health; it is about food, tax, education, business, employment, advertising and more. It is both a national challenge and a challenge within local communities. Our health mission is focused on shifting towards a more preventive approach which will benefit this agenda. In addition the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has announced an ambitious new cross-Government food strategy to work with the food industry to deliver on our goals for food security, health, affordability and the environment.

Obesity is a hugely complex challenge, but tackling it is a key part of achieving the change needed in this country. This Government are committed to taking effective action and I look forward to updating Members on what we do next.