Much Ado About Nothing. Labour’s obesity clampdown! These adverts for ultra-processed junk foods need to be banned not just until 9.00pm, but banned full stop, they are encouraging very bad habits!

Products classified as ‘less healthy’ under the government’s nutrient profiling model, and falling into one of 13 categories including soft drinks, savoury snacks, cakes, puddings, pizzas, and ready meals, will be banned from advertising on TV before 9pm from 1 October 2025, and banned totally from online paid-for advertising.

Health Minister Andrew Gwynne, in a written statement to the House of Commons, said the policy was designed to relieve the “pressure” on the National Health Service (NHS) created by the “childhood obesity crisis,” with one in three children classed as obese or overweight by the time they are 11.

“These restrictions,” Gwynne says, “will help protect children from being exposed to advertising of less healthy food and drinks, which evidence shows influences their dietary preferences from a young age.”

That sounds great, but in reality, as I have witnessed on numerous occasions, it’s the parents of the children who can still view these adverts after 9pm and it’s the adults who buy these foods for the family to eat.

In a report by Patrick Daly (Oct 4th 2024) North-eastern academics debated whether restrictions on promoting foods high in fats, sugars and salts will help slim down Britain’s bulging waistlines.

Sabina Crowe, an associate professor of economics on North-eastern University’s London campus, says the health minister’s argument is backed up by research.

“There has been quite a bit of research that finds a positive correlation between the number of adverts someone is subjected to and the amount of junk food they purchase,” said Crowe, an expert in food and consumer economics.

“So, if kids and everyone else is going to see fewer adverts for junk food, then they are highly likely to consume smaller amounts of it. There should be a strong positive impact here,” Crowe said.

However, another expert suggests the ban, fails to get to the root cause of the problem. My moneys on this expert’s opinion!

According to North-eastern assistant professor Dina Rabie, politicians should be looking to improve nutritional education both in schools and in the home, if they want to succeed in slimming down the waistlines of British families. “I do wonder how effective this will be because do kids really want to buy junk food because they see the ad on the TV, or is it because they have tried it once and they want it again?” Rabie asks.

 “So, I am very sceptical about the cost effectiveness of such a ban because the government will be putting a lot of money into enforcing it and making sure that all businesses comply. But from an economic point of view, I also think that the government is not allocating enough resources to tackling the problem of child obesity.”

"I think that professor Dina Rabie has every reason to be sceptical because, most of the children I teach, eat these types of pizzas regularly as part of their everyday diets. By the time they meet me for lessons in nutrition and learning how to cook, these 11 years old children, have already developed a taste and desire to regularly eat these types of foods. So yes, they want it again and again because they’ve become addicted to it. And what’s more, most of those children eat a whole pizza to themselves and not just a couple of slices"

"I also think banning the adverts, like the one above is a start, because this type of advertising really encourages bad eating habits. However; its sadly not an answer to our obesity problem amongst our primary school children. It needs government backing and funding, investing in public health programmes, in schools that teach a whole school approach from years 1,2,3,4,5 and 6, which tackles the subject of nutrition and obesity, repeating year after year, for any real lasting impact on our nation’s obesity statistics"

Rabie thinks that ministers could potentially spend the enforcement money more wisely by investing in public health programmes, such as making school meals healthier and raising awareness among pupils about the importance of eating well. Ideas such as ensuring that all children can access fun exercise programs at school and targeting parents with healthy cooking campaigns have the potential to wield greater results in the battle against obesity, Rabie suggests.

Rabie added “Who buys the junk food for the children? It is mainly the parents,” the behavioural economist continues. “And why do they do that? 

It can be a matter of preference or a matter of ease. But if we raise awareness among parents and caregivers about how important it is to teach those children to eat healthily and how many problems it avoids in the future, this may be more effective than just a ban.”

"And there’s the answer, education at an early age, where habits both good and bad are made for life"