It should be easy to eat healthily — but it isn’t. Every day young people are being inundated with junk food on the streets, in stores and on screens, with children in the UK seeing as many as 500 junk food ads every second. Advertising and promotion works — otherwise, why would junk food companies spend millions on it? It manipulates young people like us to crave more, buy more, and ultimately eat more unhealthy food.
But it has disastrous consequences for our health — mental and physical. That’s why we’ve been raising our voices, calling on the UK Government to step in and force big businesses to put people over profits. And we had success!
In 2020, Boris Johnson launched a brand new strategy to tackle obesity, which promised to end deals that encourage us to buy more unhealthy food and drink. And now it’s now been written into law that we will see an end to junk food advertising online, and on TV before 9pm. This is a huge step forward in ensuring all children and young people can grow up healthily, no matter where they live. We couldn’t be happier!
Now it is up to us to ensure that the final part of the plan, which promised to end promotional deals on foods high in salt, fat and sugar in stores, comes into effect this October as planned. We have heard the Government is wobbling on this promise and we need them to stand firm for our health.
Email your local MP now and ask them to tell the Prime Minister to hold his nerve on health, for the benefit of everyone in our society.
