London sets out plans to tackle childhood obesity

Childhood obesity is on the rise and in order to tackle the issue London's Child Obesity Taskforce has set out a number of measures that it will focus on reducing the number of overweight children and promote a healthy lifestyle, such as drinking plenty of water and being physically active.

According to the official data, nearly 40 per cent of London's children aged 10 or 11 are either obese or overweight, reported TheMayor.eu.

The alarming statistics have pushed the UK's capital to act upon the current situation. London mayor Sadiq Khan has specially assigned a Child Obesity Task Force for the issue.

Regarding childhood obesity, Khan said that "It's shocking that our city has such high levels of child obesity and that our children's health depends so much on who they are and where they live."

He noted that everyone has a "role to play" to tackle the health crises.

"We all have a role to play if we are to tackle this health crisis - so Londoners' lives can be improved, reducing the burden on our over-stretched health and care service. That's why I've already set out proposals cracking down on takeaways near schools and increasing the number of water fountains in the capital," Khan added.

The independent task force has set out 10 ambitions aimed at tackling the issue of childhood obesity, with calls to action including ending child poverty in the city, making free water more available, and restricting takeaway and fast-food restaurants, among many others.

The first of the ambitions is to put an end to child poverty in the city. The task force wants the Mayor to set out the minimum wage of the capital and for more businesses to start offering the "living wage".

The plan has also envisioned steps focused at those looking after youngsters like providing support to women to breastfeed for longer by increasing the number of support groups for mothers and improving data on breastfeeding.

It also aims to create food training programmes for professionals like chefs and caterers working with children.

The plan also enlists the launch of a campaign aimed at supporting parents of young children.

Another ambition focuses on the things that children consume including making free water available everywhere around the city.

The task force also aims to restrict fast-food restaurants to sell products when unaccompanied children are likely to visit and offering companies incentives to do so.

The plan also focuses on harnessing the power of investment to create good food. The task force wants the city to create a good food investment fund which will help the producers in offering healthy options at decent prices.