The poverty and obesity trap must be addressed

Leaving aside the scandal of families below the living wage who are not eligible for free school meals – and the stupidity of post-16 students in colleges not being eligible – what happens with families who struggle to make their income, whether from work or benefits, stretch to decent meals?

They tend to buy the cheapest food and ready meals. Food banks do their best to provide a balanced diet, but canned and dried food can be no panacea. I never thought I would live through a time when we would need food banks to support working families as well as those on benefits. The problem is that cheap foods and ready meals tend to be the most laden with sugar, fat and salt. While the national curriculum includes a scientific approach to nutrition, practical home economics has diminished in significance. Far too many young people reach adult life with only the vaguest knowledge of cooking. (Our son Peter had a crash course before university, and still occasionally phones for advice from the supermarket.)

There is a well-established link between poverty and obesity. Unfortunately, our bodies become acclimatised – addicted, even – to sugary and fatty foods and there is strong evidence that this occurs very early in life, indeed in the womb. Children of obese parents have an increased tendency to obesity, not genetic but epigenetic. And once you are addicted, whether to tobacco, alcohol or sugar, kicking the habit is very difficult.

But Unite is wrong in calling last month for the abandonment of the national child measurement programme. That would simply hide the problem, and at least we know that we have a problem. Obesity needs a sustained multi-dimensional and cross-government approach. Always remember that, worldwide, obesity kills three times as many people as starvation.

John Freeman CBE is a former director of children’s services and is now a freelance consultant