Childhood obesity rates in Brighton and Hove have worsened since the coronavirus pandemic, new figures suggest.
The Obesity Health Alliance (OHA) said that every child deserved to grow up healthy, regardless of their circumstances.
It urged the government to incentivise companies to make healthier products and restrict children from being “bombarded with manipulative advertising”.
NHS Digital figures indicate that 395 of 2,320 year 6 pupils measured in Brighton and Hove were classed as obese or severely obese in 2022-23.
It meant that 17 per cent – or more than one in six – of 10 and 11-year-olds were in the highest two BMI categories as they prepared to leave primary school.
This was down from 18.7 per cent the year before but above pre-pandemic levels of 15 per cent in 2019-20.
The Brighton and Hove figure was below the England average, with 22.7 per cent of year 6 pupils were obese or severely obese – down on the 23.4 per cent recorded the year before but still above pre-pandemic figures.
The data comes from the government’s annual National Child Measurement Programme – part of its approach to tackling obesity.
The programme measures the height and weight of children in reception and year 6 in state-maintained schools across England to monitor obesity trends.
OHA director Katharine Jenner said: “All children have a right to grow up healthy, regardless of their circumstances.”
She said that people wanted easy healthy options and said that if the government was to incentivise companies to make healthier products and restrict advertising financially, “it will have a disproportional benefit on those struggling to get by, freeing them from the harm caused by unhealthy food and drink.”
Ms Jenner also highlighted the divide between rich and poor, with children living in the most deprived areas (30.2 per cent) more than twice as likely to be obese as those living in the least deprived (13.1 per cent).
Mike McKean, vice-president for policy at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said that overweight children – of which two in five leave primary school – have a higher risk of chronic illnesses, mental health issues, and lower life expectancy.
Dr McKean said that the disparity between children living in deprived areas and those in affluent places was “unacceptable”.
He said: “To have these children at such a disadvantage before even starting secondary school is a national disgrace.”
The government aims to cut childhood obesity rates in half by 2030 but Dr McKean said that the root cause was poverty and deprivation, “robbing our children of a healthy adulthood before they even start school.”
He urged the government to expand free school meals, increase financial support during the ‘cost of living crisis’, implement a junk food marketing watershed ban and introduce mandatory guidelines on sugar and salt in baby foods.
The Department for Health and Social Care said that it was committing to halving childhood obesity rates in 2030.
The government said: “We have already brought in measures to reduce the amount of sugar and salt in foods, particularly those aimed at children, and our soft drinks industry levy has nearly halved the amount of sugar in soft drinks, while the sugar reduction programme has significantly reduced the amount of sugar in foods popular with children – including breakfast cereals and yoghurts.
“By investing £320 million a year in school sports we are promoting healthier lifestyles through physical activity and through schemes like Healthy Start which encourage a healthy diet for families from lower-income households.”
Still too much sugar in most supermarket foods. Bread, ham, crackers, even crisps. None of these need sugar. Processed foods are even worse
I was just about to write the same thing, Chris. As someone who avoids anything with sugar, I usually find it difficult to find supermarket items without it. Even most bread contains it. And many items contain fructose, which is far worse, but incredibly cheap for them to buy. And now we learn that most non-sugar sweeteners are also unhealthy. The cunning food “manufacturers”, and supermarket chains, know that sugar and fructose are highly addictive but keep quiet about that.
Not only are junk foods actively promoted, they are all available for home delivery now.
At least pre-covid, people used to have to go and collect their own burgers.
Also rapeseed oil is now being used in almost all cafe, restaurant and ready meals which is causing massive weight gain across the population. Much to most people’s surprise when they realise they are not eating any more than they used to, yet suddenly have folds of fat appearing where there weren’t any.
Make as much of your food yourself using extra virgin olive oil and avoid rapeseed oil.
The part of the problem that I see is access to healthy food is usually the more expensive option. With so many using our food bank services, it would be safe to say the supermarket shop budget is already squeezed.