The childhood obesity action plan of the government has been criticized by two past health ministers - Dr. Dan Poulter, a NHS psychiatrist and Norman Lamb, who served as the Health spokesperson of the previous government. While Jamie Oliver, a celebrity chief, described it as "underwhelming" and had "so much missing."
In response to the increasing rate of childhood obesity in England which the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, described a0s a "national emergency," the government came up with a plan to considerably lessen childhood obesity through supporting healthier selections. The plan calls children to stay active and eat healthier food and asks the food industry to lessen sugar amount in drinks and food.
Dr. Poulter commented that the plan is over - promised. In a report in Mail Online, Poulter commented: "This is certainly not the 'game changing' plan for reducing childhood obesity that it had been built up to be. This policy has over-promised, but I fear that the reality will be under-delivery."
Moreover, Poulter has condemned the action plan for the failure to include controls on marketing junk foods to kids. He said that soft drinks and food manufacturers are not trustworthy to help boost children's health.
Norman Lamb, a health minister along with Jeremy Hunt till May 2015, also commented on the issue and branded the strategy as "a massive damp squib". He also questioned if the plan was really the best answer to the growing childhood obesity problem or the "national emergency" the health secretary described. He continued to question if the strategy can be really described as a "game changing moment".
In the end, Dr. Poulter told the health ministers to study the findings that increasing the cost of the products which can damage health reduced both consumption and demand. From this, he suggested to increase the VAT on junk food price.
