Leisure centres ’sell fatty foods to children trying to be healthy’

A lack of regulation allows leisure centres to sell children unhealthy foods that have been banned from schools and children’s television adverts, a report has warned.

Children who try to stay healthy are being undermined by the temptation of junk food at the places where they go to get fit, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) research has found.

Vending machines in leisure centres, parks, bowling alleys and ice-skating rinks are filled with snacks like chocolate, crisps and fizzy drinks which contain high levels of fat, sugar and salt.

This is despite the fact the same foods cannot be advertised on children’s television and, under new guidelines published in September, schools have also been stopped from stocking them in their vending machines and tuck shops.

The rules became compulsory in primaries last year and must be followed in all 3,500 secondary schools from this term.

The BHF is now calling for public and private sector fitness centres to follow the lead of schools and offer healthier options.

Peter Hollins, chief executive of the BHF, said: “The average calorie content of the 21 vending machine snacks found most frequently was 203 calories. A 7 year old would need to do a staggering 88 minutes of swimming to use that up.

It’s fantastic that these kids are getting fit and having fun at the same time but this is being undermined by venues peddling junk food at them.

Councils and leisure providers need to rigorously reconsider the food options they are providing and make it easier for parents and children to make healthier choices.”

The report, prepared by the Food Commission on behalf of the BHF and titled A Fit Choice, found that a lack of controls on the industry means efforts to tackle obesity are being undermined as children face a “barrage of unhealthy products”.

Researchers compiled the study following visits to 35 leisure venues in and around London.

They also found that junk food meal deals of burgers, chicken nuggets and chips dominated the menus, while fresh fruit was displayed at less than half of the venues visited.

Deadly middle-aged spread weight

Don’t get complacent about creeping weight gain, warn scientists – it could cut your chances of a healthy old age by nearly 80 per cent.

Until now the proud boast of a middle aged woman who can say she has been the same weight all her life, might have been dismissed as little more than vanity by those not similarly blessed (or as careful with calories).

However scientists from Harvard University argue that there are real health benefits to be gained from maintaining a stable weight. Their study, published in the British Medical Journal, reveals that the more weight you put on from the age of 18 until middle age, the less chance you have of a long and healthy life.

They analysed data based on the comprehensive bi-annual monitoring of more than 17,000 middle-aged women in the United States as part of the Nurses Health Study.

The researchers defined ‘healthy survival’ as living to the age of 70 or older, while being free of major chronic diseases and with good cognitive, physical and mental health. By comparison, their definition of ‘usual survival’ referred to those who survived to the age of 70 or older but did not meet these criteria.

They defined slim women as those with a body mass index (BMI) of under 22.9 and obese women as those with a BMI of 30+. The latter group’s chances of surviving into a healthy old age were slashed by 79 per cent as compared with the slim women, the study found. Women whose weight continued to increase after the age of 18 faced a reduction of five per cent for each kilo gained.

However, if you were slender at 18 but are a little more portly now, it’s not a cause for celebration. If you’ve gained 10 kilos by middle age, you may also have reduced your chances of making it into a healthy old age by up to 59 per cent.

The authors say their study shows the importance of maintaining a stable healthy weight from young adulthood onwards.

Commenting on the study’s findings, the National Obesity Forum’s Dr David Haslam says:

“We live in a time when life expectancy is increasing due to improvements in the environment and medical science, but we’re now learning that due to the rise in obesity levels the trend may be about to reverse.

“The current adult population of the UK will lose a cumulative 100,000,000 years of life due to excess weight, and the only way for someone to avoid excess risk of illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease is to start lean, and stay lean, but for the rest of us it emphasises the importance of simple dietary measures, and especially physical activity, in order to stay as healthy as possible.”

Many diet companies will tell you that you should use their products because they provide good nutrition while you are dieting.

Getting to goal weight is about calories plain and simple. To get to your goal weight you need to concentrate on eating less than the body needs on a daily basis to hold your weight where it is. You don’t need particularly good nutrition to do this and the painful truth is that most people who are over weight are not well nourished in the first place.

But, if you consider your health as being important to you then nutrition should be important to you as well.

Many diets are nutritionally dangerous, especially if you are on them for any length of time. There may be many reasons why you want to improve your weight but everyone who is successful long term has health high on their list and because of that nutrition will follow as being important too.

To get to goal weight you need to consider your health to be more important than your weight loss worries. That way you will sort out your calories and your nutrition.