Childhood obesity and consumption of fizzy drinks

Editor—Preventing childhood obesity by reducing the consumption of carbonated drinks was studied by James et al.¹ The rise in childhood obesity is paralleled by the rise in parental fears of the risks to children of being unaccompanied outdoors. I find it strange that the simple solution, to let children play outside more, is dismissed as impossible in our modern society. Stranger-danger is largely a myth promoted by the mass media, yet there are few voices raised against it.

The big childhood obesity debate in January 2004 promoted by the Observer subsequently went unreported in the newspaper, and no wonder. It was a sad litany of “Big Sport,” sensing a chance to climb onto a funding bandwagon while defending its rights to any corporate sponsorship, and the food industry desperate to escape blame, aided by a government minister's view that car ownership was a good thing and a great liberator of the working classes.

Much of the debate in the press surrounds schools, yet obesity is nothing to do with them—you sit down in school. Let them teach, and let childhood obesity be tackled in the community. Parents refusal to allow free play for their children is now becoming embedded in a system of parental peer pressure whereby parents are afraid to allow children out for fear of being labelled uncaring (or worse) by their peers.

I believe the answer is to adopt a children's rights approach. This debate must be joined by community regeneration specialists, urban planners, and sociologists, and not blamed on schools: they have enough to do.