Fast-food outlets are booming, and so is obesity. What can be done to create healthier environments? By Nick Hughes.
We Brits love a takeaway. Every year we munch our way through well over a billion kebabs, burgers, curries, pizzas and much more besides.
But what is our love of fast food doing to our health, and in particular the health of the poorest?
In June, Public Health England (PHE) released an analysis that showed a strong link between the availability of fast-food outlets and increasing levels of deprivation in areas of the UK.
Data showed that the density of fast-food outlets per local authority ranged from 26 to 232 outlets per 100,000 population, with the average across England being 96.5. Those local authorities with a higher deprivation score had on average a greater density of fast-food outlets in their area.
The analysis was particularly significant in light of a growing body of evidence that suggests a link between exposure to fast-food outlets and the prevalence of obesity. Overweight or obese children consume up to 500 extra calories per day, depending on their age and sex, and while there are many different drivers of overconsumption, the availability of fast-food outlets is one factor that affects choice.
“Many of our streets are saturated with fast food outlets, selling food such as chips, burgers, kebabs, fried chicken and pizza,” wrote PHE’s chief nutritionist, Alison Tedstone, in a recent blog. “The sheer density of these outlets may make it easier for us to consume too much, too often.”
To compound the problem, Tedstone noted, most of these outlets provide no or limited nutrition information, which makes it difficult for people to make informed choices.
The government’s recently updated childhood obesity plan included a pledge to introduce legislation to mandate consistent calorie labelling for the out-of-home sector in England, but ministers have suggested there could be exemptions for micro-businesses. Given that many takeaways are one- or two-outlet businesses it seems likely they would be covered by any government get-out clause.
So what can be done to slow the march of the unhealthy takeaway?
One proposal advocated by PHE is to encourage local authorities to use their existing powers to create healthier food environments. PHE has worked with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to strengthen planning policy so that the proliferation of fast-food outlets can be kept in check. Recently updated guidance encourages policymakers to use their planning decisions to restrict fast-food outlets in locations where children and young people congregate such as schools, community centres and playgrounds, as well as in areas with high levels of obesity, deprivation and general poor health, and areas with an over-concentration of takeaways.
PHE says many local authorities are already taking positive action to change the food environment. At least 40 local authorities have introduced Supplementary Planning Documents (SPD) to restrict the growth of fast-food outlets as part of measures to create healthier environments. The childhood obesity plan, meanwhile, includes a three-year trailblazer programme to identify what works and share best practice so that local authorities can learn from one another.
Activity is also accelerating at a city level. One of the standout proposals in the recently released draft London food strategy was for restrictions on new hot food takeaways opening within 400 metres of an existing or proposed primary or secondary school.
PHE’s latest proposals have been greeted with enthusiasm by food policy experts. Professor Corinna Hawkes, the director of the centre for food policy at City University London tweeted: “I agree […] we need planning restrictions – and we also need incentives to bring in entrepreneurial businesses that serve better food at low cost in outlets where young people feel welcome and wanted.”
Action on Hawkes’s second point will surely be vital if councils are to resist the urge to fill empty units in increasingly depleted high streets with any business able to pay the rent.
The takeaway is a British institution that has a special place in the nation’s heart. But fast-food joints need to clean up their act if they want to be held in the same affection by those in power.
