What does 2025 hold in store for Obesity Action in Scotland?

16 January 2025
As we adjust to a new year, we look ahead to the trends and events for diet, healthy weight, health and preventing obesity that 2025 has in store. Some milestones are certain, while others remain speculative, particularly where decisions have yet to be made on charting a path to better health.

Obesity Action Scotland will be 10 years old this year! Our organisation has steadily grown in influence through the last decade, meeting its remit, as its URL states:  Obesity Action Scotland | Providing leadership and advocacy on preventing & reducing obesity & overweight in Scotland .  We will be marking our anniversary during the year. 

Second, the Scottish Government target to reduce obesity amongst children approaches. Babies will be born this year who will form the Primary 1 children that will measure the Scottish target to halve childhood obesity. 

The UK Government may renew its commitment to prevention, possibly focussing on obesity, tobacco and alcohol but also on health inequalities. We should find out in the spring. Ideally, there should be fusion of the national approach with climate change and sustainability, integrated with Governments of all levels, and the prospect of sustained and coordinated action at scale and pace to make real and significant change quickly. 

The Scottish Parliament is expected to regulate food promotions and take steps towards becoming a Good Food Nation. It could consider what other powers that Scottish and Local Governments can deploy to support prevention of obesity, with a focus on children, schools, and making healthy food options affordable and appealing. This Government and others are not short of options that have firm evidence that would work to prevent obesity as set out in Nesta’s blueprint for halving obesity.  

There may be more good news, and health scares, about weight loss drugs and other interventions to treat (but not primarily to prevent) obesity. In previous blogs we have set out our views of drugs’ limited potential to prevent future obesity unless the food environment changes radically to enable people to sustain a healthy weight.  

Scotland begins the year with preparing to host the Commonwealth Games in 2026. The event presents a unique opportunity to showcase the country’s leadership by offering a health promoting event to the players and its patrons – promoting healthier food and drink options and denormalising smoking and alcohol. The host city Glasgow’s reputation championing public health initiatives, responding to climate change, promoting sustainability and delivering family-friendly events bodes well for such an initiative. Your support could be registered through signing this petition. 

One theme from 2024 that should see practical steps to action is in taking measures to transform food governance. Across a range of reports – including those from the House of Lords Committee, the NCD Alliance Scotland writing on Commercial influence (references below) – they stress the urgent need to reduce the influence of the food industry on diet, weight and health policy. ‘Food governance’ relates to accountability for the actions of food companies, the checks and balances of their commercial influence on food policy – the large companies we know as household names exist to make returns for their shareholders, and commonly these interests are in direct opposition to the population health interest. Hence the Call to Action from OAS and hundreds of civil society partners in autumn 2024 to protect food policy-making from commercial interests. This theme will gain further focus, with attempts to shift the balance away from our pervasive obesogenic environment, created by marketing, promotion and supply of unhealthy foods. 

Ominously, according to the World Obesity Federation (WOF), the world’s population is expected to become heavier –with projections indicating a doubling of obesity prevalence for children and adults over the next 10 years.  The Scotland section of their Global Obesity Observatory indicates that the burden in terms of cost will rise. The WOF estimates that the cost of the epidemic as predicted will cost hundreds of billions, possibly into the trillions; conversely the savings from successful prevention are of the same order worldwide – that obviously describes a human cost, and potential benefit, too.  At the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow’s President’s conference in November 2024, where the WOF Chief Executive spoke, a representative from the Tony Blair Institute also reported obesity-attributable costs spiralled from 3% to 4% of GDP during the COVID pandemic and is projected to continue to rise. 

2025 – the year of doing what works for a healthy weight? 

OAS is not looking for new resolutions for 2025. Instead, we’re focusing on raising awareness about what’s at stake and highlighting the effective interventions that are still not being implemented. Leadership and advocacy can inspire those with influence and organisational power to drive meaningful change. We must be resolute in taking action. 

Blog written by Dr Andrew Fraser, Steering Group Chair. 

References: 

  1. Nesta’s blueprint for halving obesity, 2024 Available from: https://institute.global/insights/public-services/unhealthy-numbers-the-rising-cost-of-obesity-in-the-uk    
  2. House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee. Recipe for health: a plan to fix our broken food system. Report of Session 2024–25, 2024 Oct 24. Available from: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5901/ldselect/ldmfdo/19/19.pdf 
  3. NCD Alliance Scotland, NCD Prevention: A Commercial Determinants of Health Approach A 10-Year Vision for a Healthier Scotland, 2024. Available from: https://www.bhf.org.uk/-/media/files/what-we-do/in-your-area-scotland-pages/ncd/ncd-prevention-a-commercial-determinants-of-health-approach-2024-report.pdf 
  4. Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. Fit for the Future, a Fair Deal on Food for a Healthier Britain, 2024. Available from: Fit for the Future: A Fair Deal on Food for a Healthier Britain