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Press Release: January 2008: Ministers need to think big on tackling obesity says National Heart Forum

23 January 2008

Responding to the publication of the government's new obesity strategy "Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives", today Wednesday 23 January 2008, Paul Lincoln, chief executive of the National Heart Forum said:

"This strategy is an urgently needed commitment of action and resources across government to tackle Britain's alarming rates of overweight and obesity. The recent Foresight report* showed that we must dramatically scale up efforts to improve poor diets and tackle sedentary behaviours if we are going to avoid huge burdens of ill-health and societal costs in the future. "

Paul Lincoln congratulated ministers on grasping the problem but said that it will be vital that they monitor the effectiveness of the new policies and keep the strategy under regular review. "Particularly with respect to those cross government commitments including those to promote active travel and create healthy schools. It is also essential that ministers are willing to step up pressure on the food industry wherever voluntary actions fail to yield results" he said.

Press Contacts

Paul Lincoln or Tim Marsh on (T) 020 7383 7638 during office hours or (M) 07713 514942 (T. Marsh) or 07946 433215 (P. Lincoln)

Notes to editors

  1. The Department of Health's obesity strategy, Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: a Cross-Government Strategy for England can be downloaded at http://tinyurl.com/36rp5h 
  2. Paul Lincoln, NHF chief executive is chair of the Delivery Reference Panel.
  3. *Tackling Obesities: Future Choices is published by the Government Office for Science and is available at the Foresight website http://www.foresight.gov.uk/ . The National Heart Forum was commissioned by Foresight to build a micro-simulation model of obesity trends over the next 50 years. The report Tackling Obesities: Future Choices- Modelling Future Trends & Their Impact on Health is also available from the Foresight website.