Health Department Child Obesity Campaign Provokes Parental Backlash

The adverts demonise little home-made cake treats and are part of a wider publicity campaign to reduce Britain's growing incidence of obesity, especially child obesity. Mothers who visit the popular Mumsnet website are condemning these adverts as frightening for children and likely to trigger eating disorders and anxiety about health.

I agree with the criticism being voiced by parents and others. These adverts are alarmist and inappropriate. But my further criticism would be that while sugary food can be harmful to children's teeth, it is SALT, not sugar, that promotes obesity in children.

When children become fat it is because they are eating salty food. Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend immature blood vessels than adult mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume and fluid retention results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed salty food.

Unfortunately children tend to eat a lot of salty snacks like crisps, and many families routinely eat microwave meals and processed foods that contain a lot of salt. In general it would be good for children not to develop a taste for salt. Providing snacks of fresh fruit, ready-to-eat dried fruit or unsalted nuts instead of salty savouries, and cooking low salt meals when possible, instead of feeding them ready meals and takeaways, would help provide essential nutrients and avoid a lifetime's struggle with the physical and emotional problems of being overweight.

Margaret Wilde www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk