MP Tackles Supermarkets Over Obesity

Ann Keen asks retailers to help parents combat pester power

Local Labour MP Ann Keen is calling on supermarkets across the borough to join the fight against child obesity by taking sugary and fatty foods away from checkout queuing areas.

She had told them they can contribute buy not displaying sweets and chocolates at checkouts where parents and children queue. She has written to all the local supermarkets to ask them what they are doing to help families to beat pester power.

The England-wide strategy Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives, launched on January 23, sets the government’s plans to tackle obesity in five key areas: preventing weight problems in childhood, promoting healthier food choices, building physical activity into people's lives, supporting health at work and providing incentives more widely to promote health; and providing effective treatment and support when people become overweight or obese.

A key part of the Strategy, launched here in Hounslow, is the requirement for every young person to do compulsory cooking lessons.

She visited Green Dragon School to see children getting involved in the preparation of food. She said: "All parents want to make healthy choices for their children, but it isn't always easy. We all know that modern society can sometimes encourage us to get into bad eating habits. Everyone has a role to play in tackling obesity - we all need to work together to ensure that children eat healthily and get proper exercise."

Ann welcomed Secretaries of State, Alan Johnson and Ed Balls, to Green Dragon School in Brentford to meet pupils and staff. Here they talked about and saw first hand examples of healthy food lessons at our local school.

February 1, 2008