Childhood obesity was back in the headlines this week following the publication of two UK child health reports.

The first was a worrying analysis of government public health data from over a million children in England. Not only did this show a significant upward trend in the prevalence of obesity among 10 and 11 year olds over the last six years, but also found evidence of widening health inequalities. In fact, children from deprived areas are almost twice as likely to be obese than those in affluent areas (24.2% versus 12.8% of Year 6 school children).

On the same day, the British Medical Association painted a fairly gloomy picture of child health and well-being in 2013 in their report Growing Up in the UK. The BMA accused the government of “failing children”, and highlighted obesity as one of several public health problems about which little was being done. Read more…