Speaking last week at The Royal College of Physicians in London, the professor of endocrinology at Oxford University also said that everybody should know their Body Mass Index (BMI).
Health problems associated with being overweight or obese cost the NHS £5 billion every year and Wass also highlighted research, which found that 75% are unaware of the link between obesity and cancer.
Wass claimed that intervention methods do succeed, when referring to the sugar tax, but they ‘typically take one or two years to become cost effective’.
He detailed that 30% of a child’s daily sugar intake is from sugary drinks and to those against the tax, he said: “A bullet is also less than 30% of a gun, but it is still the most crucial part.”
Wass stated that similar levies have worked in France, Denmark, Finland and Hungary where there has been a drop in sugar consumption of 10%.
When speaking about the obesity strategy, he said, ‘it is a good start, but there is work to do’, notably in the oversight of the need for clearer labelling and a ban on advertising sugary products to children.