Strapping kids to a treadmill isn’t the answer

Building on his Health of the Nation post, Young Fabian Tim Nicholls takes another look at the importance of our relationship with food and argues that good habits need to start early.

In a previous post, I talked about the need for radical thinking to tackle increasing rates of obesity in the UK. Though I spoke in more general terms, particular attention needs to be paid to childhood obesity. This builds on the policy ideas in my last post: particularly vital is making good food cost less.

This is for two reasons. Firstly, if children grow up fit and healthy, they’re more likely to stay that way. Secondly, increasing rates of obesity in children are leading to rates of juvenile diabetes and other health conditions that are, in themselves, sufficient cause for action.

But what to do?

A great leap forward was made a couple of years ago. Say what you like about Jamie Oliver, he got school meals on the agenda and budgets were increased. Children were getting healthy food in schools and it was getting results. Already, there is news that this agenda is for the chop.

This would be a colossal mistake by the Government. This is not just because a move away from healthy school dinners will make our children less healthy; it is because the lessons you learn in early life are vital. If we can teach children about food – about what’s good for them and how much better you feel when you eat a balanced diet – half the battle is won.

Free school meals should be universal; ensuring that every child has one solid meal a day.

No school should be without a kitchen. Full stop.

Children should be involved in making dinners: not every day, but enough to give them a proper appreciation of what they are eating. This should not just be a schools agenda: we should be encouraging parents to cook with their children too.

But how do we do that when the work-life balance of many working families is so skewed and healthy food costs more? How does a single mother of three, who is working two jobs manage this? She would have to be Supermum. A living wage, childcare and flexible working should all tie explicitly into this agenda.

The point is that we should not just see child obesity as a health issue. It will not be fixed by strapping a child to a treadmill. To a child, life does not neatly split into home life and school life, it’s just life. A consistent message of healthy living has to span both.