The obesity crisis: a healthy population needs a healthy environment | Letters
Public Health England is not up to the task, says Rob Wheway; we all need to stop eating for winter, says Cian Foley; gardening and tai chi can help older people stay fit, says Louise Ansari; what priority is the government giving to preserving urban open spaces for pleasant walks, asks Mark Bryant
Public Health England (PHE) does not understand health. The letter (24 August) from its chief nutritionist, Dr Alison Tedstone, responding to my article on obesity (Want to fight obesity? Stop shrinking pizzas and let children play, 23 August) proves my point. PHE ignores the fact that for countless millennia children ran around near their own homes every day. Healthy exercise for free. Domination of the car in residential roads stopped this happening and the result has been increases in lack of fitness, obesity, diabetes and mental-health-related issues. We know from zoos that keeping mammals confined to small spaces results in poor physical and mental health, which is what has happened to our children.
In the 1850s Londoners were suffering from cholera and dysentery. Quacks and charlatans were offering expensive treatments, therapies and gimmicks which did not work. Joseph Bazalgette built the sewers, and public health improved dramatically. It can be seen that a healthy environment is the first requirement for a healthy population. PHE has not learned the lesson of the 1850s. It emphasises treating obesity rather than creating the environment that will prevent it in the first place. It resorts to substituting synthetic ingredients into food and gimmicks such as 10-minute exercise cartoons which are doomed to fail. We all, particularly children, need a healthy environment. Public Health England is simply not up to the task.
Rob Wheway
Director, Children’s Play Advisory Service
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