Lack of available healthy food in cities combined with junk food advertising is setting children up to live “shorter and unhealthier” lives, England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty has said in his annual report, which suggests a tax on junk food to improve the health of the urban poor.
The wide-ranging report into the urban landscape and public health, released on Thursday, urges the government to do more to tackle what Whitty terms “healthy food deserts” in cities, which the report finds is a major cause of unhealthy eating.
Whitty, who became a well-known and controversial figure during the COVID-19 lockdown era, also points to the cost of food as a key factor impacting poorer people the most, finding that per calorie, healthy food “is almost twice as expensive as unhealthy food.”
Children and families in inner city areas are less likely to have access to healthy, affordable food choices in local shops, restaurants, and takeaways, and are “disproportionately exposed to unhealthy food advertising,” the 430-page report finds.
Four out of five outdoor billboards in England and Wales are in poorer areas, with many advertising junk food, while poorer regions are often “saturated with fast-food outlets,” both physically and online, the study found. […]
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