Childhood Obesity Event - Summary

Delegates had the opportunity to hear from an interesting range of speakers, including the Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport, Maree Todd MSP.

The Minister delivered a Ministerial address. In her address, she reaffirmed the Scottish Government’s commitment to addressing childhood obesity in Scotland, stating that our mission has never been tougher. The Minister highlighted that action is needed from all sections of society and we know that making structural changes to be obesogenic environment can be more effective than individual behaviour change interventions. She also outlined that whole systems approaches are key to addressing overweight and obesity. The Minister ended her remarks by posing a challenge to attendees – to be bold and put forward bold ideas to the Government. She also remarked that proposing policies and interventions that have a strong economic case are also very welcome in the current climate.

The first session focused on data and trends in childhood obesity in Scotland and included presentations from Lorraine Tulloch, Dr Anna Pearce from University of Glasgow, and Anna Taylor from the Food Foundation.

• Lorraine Tulloch provided an overview of the current context of childhood obesity in Scotland, outlining the latest data and what this tells us with regards to achieving the ambition.
• Dr Anna Pearce provided an overview of the inequalities in childhood obesity, presenting the main findings from recently published Health Foundation report on which she was lead author. The main findings highlighted included: the proportion of children at risk of obesity is widening between those from the most and least deprived backgrounds; the inequalities experienced are unlikely to be explained by physical activity, as evidence shows that children from the most and least deprived backgrounds achieve similar levels of physical activity; and there are clear differences in consumption of fruit and vegetables between the most and least deprived adults, which is driven by accessibility and affordability of unhealthy food. It is the distribution of power, money and resources that has the biggest influence over the strength and effectiveness of policy interventions.
• Anna Taylor provided an overview of childhood obesity in the context of the current cost of living crisis, highlighting work in this area carried out by the Food Foundation. Rapid price inflation has severely affected the price of the recommended healthy diet – the price of fruit and vegetables has risen much more sharply and remains higher than unhealthy high fat, salt and sugar products and every day staples. She highlighted that those from the most deprived backgrounds need to be spend almost 50% of their disposable income to eat a diet in line with the EatWell guide, compared to 10% for the least deprived.

The second session focused interventions needed to achieve the ambition, specifically looking at price, availability and the out of home food environment. The session included presentations from Lorraine Tulloch, Prof Cesar Revoredo-Giha from Scotland’s Rural College, Barry Norris from Bristol City Council, and Dr Gillian Purdon from Food Standards Scotland.

• Lorraine Tulloch provided a short introduction to the session, outlining the need for and importance of action in each area, in line with the 3 asks of OAS.
• Prof Revoredo-Giha presented findings from the modelling study he conducted on behalf of the Scottish Government to model the calorie and other nutrient reduction that could be achieved by restricting price promotions on discretionary HFSS products. Results from the modelling found restricting advertising all types of price promotions in retail premises would result in an average weekly household reduction of 613 kcal, which is achieved primarily through fewer purchases of HFSS products.
• Barry Norris provided an overview of the approach taken in Bristol City Council to restrict outdoor advertising of HFSS products, known as their ‘ad-free city’ campaign. He highlighted that the policy includes all communications channels including photos, partnership materials, and advertising spaces, and HFSS products restricted under the scheme are determined by the Nutrient Profile Model (NPM).
• Dr Purdon provided an overview of the latest findings from Food Standards Scotland’s work on the out of home food environment. She explained the latest data which shows the usage of the sector in Scotland, the most commonly purchased types of products, and the growth of meal deliveries during the pandemic period. Other key work presented included their analysis of high calorie contents in main meals and sweet snacks sold out of home in Scotland compared to those in retail environments. Dr Purdon also outlined the new Eating Out, Eating Well Framework, which is a voluntary framework for out of home businesses. The framework will include a code of practice for children’s menus which is due to be piloted later this year.

The audience were engaged and asked questions of the Minister and speakers. The coffee breaks and lunch created a great atmosphere, and provided opportunities for attendees to network and engage with each other.

We would like to thank everyone who came along to the event for attending.