Should Heinz/Cow & Gate be prosecuted for not complying with food labelling legal requirement re Baby Balance biscuits, which contained trans fats?

The Times reports that "Parents are unwittingly feeding their babies and young children on items that may be worse for their health than junk food."

Sustain, a small charity that campaigns for healthier children’s food, has found that many baby foods promoted as 'healthy' are not, in fact, healthy for babies and young children. Some are, in effect, junk food.

Among the criticised products are Toddler’s Own mini cheese biscuits and Farley's Rusks.

I hope that there will be criminal prosecutions in connection with the false claims and misleading labelling, but I doubt that will happen because the food industry has many powerful friends and defenders, whereas mere consumers and their children have little influence.

Remember, babies and young children need to be protected from salt/sodium and salty foods. Child obesity is caused by sodium intake that is too high. It is not just salt that contains sodium. The raising agent in biscuits often contains sodium bicarbonate.

High sodium intake is a major contributory factor in many chronic health problems, as well as obesity.

Children and Obesity

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Junk Food Makers are targeting children on the internet

Junk Food Makers reach children on internet - Telegraph

Extract:

"Food manufacturers were criticised yesterday for targeting their advertising at children on the internet and social networking websites.

Several major food companies have begun using the sites to promote their products following a ban on junk food advertising on television.In April, Ofcom, which regulates broadcasters, outlawed all adverts to children under nine years old that promoted sugary, salty or fatty foods. At the end of the year the ban extends to 15-year-olds.

However, Ofcom has no remit to regulate the internet, and adverts on websites are self-regulated by the advertising industry. The ban on junk food advertising also does not cover the cinema.

Campaigners argue that fast food chains and sweet companies are adopting new tactics to get around the TV ban.

Skittles, which are made by the confectionery giant Mars, have a profile on the popular social networking site Bebo. The page has already been viewed more than 50,000 times and attracted more than 3,500 "friends".

Meanwhile McDonald's is also targeting children on the internet. It features a Kids Zone on its website, which lets children play games that feature the company's clown mascot, Ronald McDonald.

In cinemas, the sugary cereal Coco Pops has placed adverts before the new Harry Potter film. Kellogg's, which makes Coco Pops, admits the advert would not be allowed during a children's programme on television.

Campaigners argue that all these tactics break the spirit, if not the letter, of the new regulations. Richard Watts, who heads the Sustain campaign, which has fought against junk food advertising, said: "I don't think it is a legitimate tactic to shift their advertising in this way. If Ofcom thinks that under 16-year-olds should be protected, that is a principle that should be carried through to other media. The country has to decide - given the rates of childhood obesity - whether we make sure all marketing is regulated or whether we let the problem continue.""

It is a high salt intake that causes child obesity. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and Associated health conditions

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Schoolchildren are becoming so fat that special outsize school uniforms are having to be stocked by school outfitters.

Obesity epidemic feeds demand for 52-inch school uniform - Guardian

Extracts:

"Britain's largest specialist schoolwear retailer has expanded its range of outsized uniforms for sale "off the peg" in response to growing demand from parents who are struggling to find clothes to fit their overweight children.

In what health campaigners say is the latest evidence of the growing obesity epidemic affecting children and teenagers, the National Schoolwear Centres chain is announcing today that it is to offer blazers with 52-inch chests, trousers with 42-inch waists and shirts with 17.5-inch collars. The company said it believes they are the biggest sizes in the school uniform market in the UK.

The garments are designed for boys, although the retailer says it is already offering blouses to fit a 48-inch bust in its existing range for girls at secondary school.

The retailer's managing director, Graham Michelli, said: "The overall trend is that ... boys and girls are getting bigger and girls' legs are getting longer. At the start of the school year one of our stores sold uniforms to two 11-year-old boys. One was fitted with a 26-inch blazer and the other a 48-inch blazer. That is the sort of range we are seeing. One of our stores was even asked for a pair of trousers with a 48-inch waist for a 13-year-old girl.""

"The campaign group Sustain, which incorporates the Children's Food Campaign, said the new sizing was a reflection of the state of youngsters' health. One child in three in the UK is overweight or clinically obese, and that figure could rise to one in two by 2020 if children are not encouraged to eat and live more healthily. Childhood obesity can lead to diabetes, bowel cancer and heart disease."

The overwhelming problem is the continued false assumption that obesity is caused by overeating and that it can be reduced by calorie restriction. - But obesity is NOT caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, which in children is usually caused by eating a salty diet. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html

Obesity can be easily reduced by seriously reducing salt/sodium intake and eating plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables. Avoid convenience meals/processed food because these are usually very high in salt. Try to cook from scratch with fresh ingredients. - It is important not to restrict calories. - 'Slimming' or 'dieting' is unnecessary, ineffective, counter-productive and often extremely harmful.

Since this Guardian article specifically mentions the campaign group Sustain, which incorporates the Children's Food Campaign, I would like to point out that I emailed Charlie Powell of Sustain two years ago, explaining that obesity is not lessened by dieting, but only by reducing salt intake, and I included evidence and weblinks to support what I wrote and he wrote back: "Many thanks for your e-mail. It all sounds most interesting and I will endeavour to follow up the links you have provided." - Clearly he did not bother to do this or we would not be in the appalling situation of children becoming more and more obese.

Last year I rang up Kath Dalmeny of Sustain, since clearly nothing at all had been done about the info I had sent Charlie Powell. I also emailed her more than once. - She emailed me back, emphasising that Sustain informs people about the need to reduce salt intake. - BUT THAT, OF COURSE, IS NOT THE POINT! - Every Tom, Dick and Harry is advising people to eat less salt! - The point is that people are NOT being told that THE WAY TO REDUCE OBESITY IS TO EAT LESS SALT and eat plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit. - And, crucially they are not being told to give up calorie counting and dieting, because these actually have the effect of increasing fluid retention and therefore increasing obesity and serious illness.

I consider it very remiss of Charlie Powell and Kath Dalmeny not to have done anything useful or effective with the vitally important information I sent them.

The trouble is, misguided health campaigners like Charlie and Kath are frightened of getting into trouble if they go against the conventional wisdom. - If only they were frightened of harming the innocent victims of the conventional wisdom!

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)