Government wants Nation to Diet without Curbing Food and Drinks Industry

The Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, wants us to go on a diet.
Last week he said that we as a nation need to reduce the calorific intake of our diets by five billion calories .
He tried to encourage us by using images of Olympic-sized swimming pools full of cola and chocolate bars extending from Lands End to John o’ Groats.
Have those images done anything to help the situation? It would not appear to be the case.
Professor Terence Stephenson from the Royal College of Paediatrics says that a five billion calorie reduction equates to 100 daily calories per person, which equates to only 16 dry roasted peanuts.
Mr Lansley thought he would get a good reception, but that does not seem to be the case.
It is immensely difficult to get an entire country to change its eating habits.
Two decades ago, Virginia Bottomley, Mr Lansley’s predecessor as Health Secretary, encouraged this country to eat “three egg-sized potatoes a day.” Obesity has soared since.
Mr Lansley’s appeal to the nation has not been taken very seriously given that the Government still refuses to rein in the food and drink industries which have perpetuated the increase in obesity .