Health watchdog National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) have issued a report requesting major changes to convenience food which has presented new challenges to the government and the food industry. Children are facing a lifetime of obesity related illness and disease thanks to diets consisting of mainly convenience and processed foods. The government maintain that individuals should be able to make healthy choices, but with today’s fast pace of life many parents are relying on low priced processed food for their children which is convenient.

There are 150,000 deaths a year which are attributed to cardiovascular disease, mostly heart attacks and strokes. Children who are overweight have a far greater chance of becoming a statistic of heart disease, which is why the promotion of healthy eating is essential.

Nice recommends many alterations to the food industry which includes lowering the price of healthy alternatives to high salt and sugar foods, a complete ban on trans fats and cutting individual intake of salt by 50 percent. Other changes which have been recommended are banning take-aways and outlets selling junk food close being positioned close to schools as well as forbidding adverts on the television before the watershed of 9pm which promote unhealthy high fat, high salt and sugar foods. Some of these measures were said to be impractical according to the government who also claim that a traffic light system which would colour code foods according to levels of salt, sugar and fat was not practical and that individuals could choose for themselves.

Public health physician and professor of clinical epidemiology at Liverpool University, Simon Capewell said:

We’re looking at well over £1bn a year in savings, not just to the NHS.

Nice are extremely concerned as the levels of fat, salt and sugar levels in a child’s diet will encourage them to eat an unhealthy diet which could lead to heart disease as well as other ailments caused by obesity from a very young age.

Suggestions that the government introduce traffic light colour coding through legislation were refused straight away by the Department of Health. The Food and Drink Federation claimed that voluntary changes had already been introduced. The European Society of Cardiology and the British Heart Foundation support the Nice report.