Children's Food Campaign responds to new government childhood obesity figures

The government has released new data as part of its health survey 2022 for England. A change in methodology and a much smaller sample make the figures hard to compare with previous years. However they do reveal that:

• More than 1 in 4 children (27%) aged 2-15 are living with overweight, and 15% living with obesity.
• 1 in 5 children aged 8-15 (21%) reported that they were actively trying to lose weight. 

Responding to the new data, Children's Food Campaign manager Barbara Crowther says:

“The government has committed to the healthiest ever generation of children – this new data reveals the scale of this challenge, especially for children living in areas of high deprivation, where the risk of overweight and obesity is twice as high compared to children from higher income backgrounds. This shows how important our child poverty strategy is for improving children’s health, and the vital role of other policies such as ensuring healthy school food for all, restricting unhealthy marketing practices and incentivising companies to make healthy products more affordable than unhealthy ones.”

Sustain Trustee and Director of the Obesity Health Alliance, Katharine Jenner says:

“[Taking into account changes in methodology and sample size] The levels appear to be fairly similar to previous years.  If there is any levelling off, it could be due to a number of factors, including healthier food becoming more visible with junk food removed from the checkouts, and calories available on menus. However it is concerning that any benefits are still not being seen equally across our society.  The extreme disparity between those that are experiencing deprivation, and those that aren’t, persists.  
“Better food and drink is at the heart of creating a healthier, fairer and wealthier society, and we need a commitment to put the health of all our children above the interests of food industry giants. We expect action that matches the scale of the challenge we face.  The healthy choice should be the easy choice for everyone – and at the moment, it isn’t."