Momentum continues to gather for the campaign to persuade the Government to back the ‘eating for health’ drive that is being championed by the caterers, dietitians and health experts behind the PS100 group.
The simple message that poor diet creates a sicker society and jacks up health spending as a result, is gaining real traction.
There’s Government-level recognition of that, but what the PS100 group wants is to see action in the form of backing for simple measures within the public sector to improve the diet of the nation.
This action can be distilled into two key aims: sector-appropriate food standards and protected mealtimes to be in force wherever the public purse plays a part in feeding people – in schools, hospitals, care homes, prisons and among the military.
The opportunity to present this message to a wider audience is now being taken thanks to an initiative to publish articles explaining the arguments that will be carried in national news magazine New Statesman in the first two weeks of December.
New Statesman is one of Britain’s leading weekly, political, cultural and current affairs magazines.
Research by Canadean Consumer for the PS100 group in 2012 showed that 17% of adults were unaware of a link between nutritional uptake and obesity, while 26.2% did not understand the relationship between diet and malnutrition.
This research has been updated for 2013 and you can see the latest version attached to this article.
But the ignorance suggested in last year’s report has not gone away so there remains a need for action, which is the point at which PS100 comes in.