5. Welsh Conservatives Debate: Obesity

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:53 pm on 2 February 2022.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 3:53, 2 February 2022

Thank you very much. James was right to mention that this is a global tragedy. The poorest countries are also the ones who are being absolutely bombarded with advertising of sugary drinks, otherwise known as fizzy drinks, and also processed food, when these countries absolutely cannot afford to treat the diabetes that is the inevitable consequence. So, it is appalling that these multinational companies behave in this way.

The rare countries that do not have the advertising ubiquitous all over the place are the ones that are the healthiest, and we have to remind ourselves that the healthiest that the British population has ever been was during the second world war and afterwards, when we had rationing, and therefore people were unable to eat more than a very small amount of food that was actually poisoning them.

So, obesity is the second biggest cause of early death after smoking, and it will soon overtake it, because we are being very effective in stopping people from smoking. Amongst the many tragic failures of the UK Government is the failure to legislate to have clear, traffic-light labelling on all food products, so people can see just how disastrous particular foodstuffs are for your health. Far too many takeaway food outlets are drowning in fat, sugar and salt, as that is the cheapest way of disguising tasteless food. And it is also how the multinational food processing companies make their billions. So, to counter that is really, really difficult, because people have forgotten how to cook, and we are having to rectify that in everything we're doing, whether it's in our schools or in other community centres. We simply have to revive the idea that you can cook a meal with some very, very simple ingredients, and it's much tastier than anything that's dished up by somebody who's only really wanting to take your money off you. 

So, I do recall a very important move by the then Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services in the last Senedd, which was Eluned Morgan, to ensure that there were weight-management programmes targeted in all local authorities on people were in danger of becoming type 2 diabetic, and I hope that it may it be possible for the current Deputy Minister to be able to tell us how well that roll-out is going, because I think it's an extremely important programme. Prevention is always cheaper than treatment after the event, so this is a way we can definitely try and halt the absolute epidemic in type 2 diabetes.