As part of a proposed government crackdown on obesity, Downing Street barred supermarkets in England from displaying unhealthy food and drinks at checkouts or using them in buy one, get one free offer.
The latest restrictions follow suit of Boris Johnson’s pledge earlier in the year to reduce levels of excess weight and obesity. The Prime Minister had made the commitment after his recovery from coronavirus, which he believed was exacerbated by the fact that he was overweight. The seriousness around addressing increasing obesity and diabetes levels among Britons became more pronounced ever since research highlighted that overweight people are at a greater risk of serious illness from covid-19.
Deprivation and poverty root cause of obesity
Dr. Partha Kar is a consultant in diabetes and endocrinology and a National Speciality Advisor for Diabetes with NHS England. Speaking about the high deprivation factor in the UK, he said, “Obesity has been a major impact on coronavirus. Type II diabetes is linked to obesity which reduces your survival rates if you are infected with coronavirus. There are multi-layered problems when addressing diabetes and deprivation is the biggest factor where people can live on unhealthy diets because a meal from McDonald’s is cheaper and affordable in comparison to nutritious diets.
“Policies like sugar taxation or banning advertisements of junk food may make a difference. But it does not address the root cause of deprivation. There is also a lot of stigma around obesity and in the process, we lose out on being able to help those who are actually suffering from obesity. Also, we need to factor in the diverse cultural groups co-existing in the UK. A bulk of the policy framework that is designed around combatting diabetes is subconsciously catered towards certain majoritarian groups of people. But there is no specific messaging designed specifically for ethnic minorities in alignment with their cultural practices.”
As part of the government’s strategy, checkout restrictions will apply to other sales-boosting locations such as the entrances to stores or at the end of aisles and similar rules will apply for websites, banning sales links to unhealthy foods on places such as homepages, or at checkout or payment pages. In what is seen as government’s attempt of addressing this deprivation, restaurants will also no longer be able to offer free refills of sugary drinks. The restrictions will not come into force until April 2022, and will be subject to a consultation process first. The rules about promotions – which would also stop all bulk buy offers on high-fat or high-sugar food and drinks – would only apply to larger retailers, those with 50 or more employees.
Role models need to shift the dial on diabetes
The proportion of adults in England diagnosed with diabetes trebled between 1994 and 2019, as obesity rates soared, according to a latest UCL report. The same study also noted that 16 per cent of people in the lowest income group had diabetes in comparison to only 7 per cent in the highest income group. In the meantime, an NHS study notes that diabetes affects around 3million people in the UK, half a million of these are from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities those who have suffered a disproportionate impact of Covid-19. Yet, obesity and diabetes are a stigma and hardly discussed about within South Asian families.
Speaking about the need for celebrities to raise awareness around Diabetes, Dr. Kar said, “Stephen Fry changed the dial around mental health and started speaking about his own experience around depression and mental health. Other celebrities like Dwayne Johnson, Deepika Padukone have broken that stigma around mental health and it is no longer a “taboo”. The same needs to be done around diabetes. We need role models in the form of religious leaders, local community members and celebrities like Sanjeev Kapoor or Meera Syal to shift that dial around diabetes as well.”
Combined with the government’s campaign to address diabetes, up and coming MedTech companies such as GlucoRx are also harnessing the power of technology to provide painless treatment options for diabetics. But the multi-pronged approach in tackling diabetes and obesity begins with first bringing about “behavioural” and “lifestyle” changes. The government must remember that their policies cannot be one size fits all.
