Parents of obese children should get healthy food vouchers, experts say
judy
www.diecastingpartsupplier.com
2016-06-06 15:41:20
Parents of the one in three primary schoolchildrenwho are dangerously overweight should be given"healthy food vouchers" to encourage theiroffspring to eat more fruit and vegetables, publichealth experts have recommended.
The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) said the move would help tackle the worseningchildhood obesity crisis, which has prompted ministers to draw up a new strategy due to bepublished in January.
The society wants local councils in England, which since 2013 have received a dedicated publichealth budget, to fund the vouchers. They would be "provided to parents of overweight andobese children to incentivise better eating habits," an RSPH report on childhood obesitysuggests.
The RSPH is proposing the vouchers as part of an overhaul of the "fat letter" that parents ofchildren identified as overweight through the annual national child measurement programme(NCMP) receive in some places.
Such letters are meant to prompt the family of a pupil concerned to start receiving support tohelp tackle their child's excessive weight, rather than just notifying them of their body massindex result.