4. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales — Our national ambitions to prevent and reduce obesity in Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:37 pm on 29 January 2019.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 4:37, 29 January 2019

Thank you for the comments and points. I do want to make clear that the Government does not accept that we should allow poor diet to continue to be a defining feature of the way people live their lives and that must be the ambition of the Government to set out. And I recognise what you've had to say about healthy eating within schools and the challenges of procurement, about having healthy meals and adherence to the current regulations we have when considering further legislative change. It's not just about the curriculum, but whether there is legislative change needed as well. And of course, we're having a conversation to flesh out what the most appropriate steps are to make the biggest difference. That will require us to work together with local authorities in thinking about what is guidance, what is required to actually achieve the right outcome.

But I should say that, when you go into primary schools in particular, I'm regularly struck by how consistent the message is about healthy eating. Messages about high sugar, high fat, high salt, and the way that your final point is about the normalisation of making healthy food, and that it's fun to eat healthy food as opposed to something that is an act of penance, rather than something that you should actually enjoy. And I know this from my own child in the school system and the term's current project is 'scrumptious', so they're looking to try out new and different tastes and flavours and to make them interesting and to normalise it at an early age. And I'm delighted to say he is in particular enjoying this theme of his learning journey, and I wish that other children have the same opportunity. So, again, we look at what we do, how we do it, and how we make it more consistent to make the real cultural change we're all looking to achieve.