Obesity Health Alliance

🚨 Killer Tactics 2: Business as Usual 🚨

Our latest report with Action on Smoking and Health and Alcohol Health Alliance reveals how powerful industries are undermining public health policy under the current Labour Government.

Read the report here ➡️ obesityhealthalliance.org.uk/2025/10/23/k...

Reports and briefings - ASH Find out more about a joined-up approach and the tactics health harming industries use to block policy progress.

Mental Health Awareness Week is a chance to spotlight how commercial forces shape our wellbeing.
Find out more in our new briefing on the commercial determinants of mental health, developed with @centreformh.bsky.social @aha-uk.bsky.social @oha-updates.bsky.social
👇
ash.org.uk/health-inequ...

Together with @oha-updates.bsky.social, @aha-uk.bsky.social & @ashorguk.bsky.social we're calling on the govt to match the public mood with leadership on health prevention, including on alcohol and junk food. Read more here: obesityhealthalliance.org.uk/2025/05/09/1...

Consortium partners @adphuk.bsky.social and @oha-updates.bsky.social have joined a call organised by @thesoilassociation.bsky.social urging Government to take action to make healthy, minimally processed foods more accessible and affordable.

#CDOH

www.adph.org.uk/2025/05/adph...

Young people shocked at levels of sugar and salt in everyday food | Recipe for Change What happened when a group of teens got together to see if they could taste the difference between snacks with different levels of salt and sugar? This new video from the Recipe for Change campaign, c...

As part of #RecipeforChange, teenagers were asked if they could taste the difference between snacks with different levels of salt and sugar 🧵⬇️
tinyurl.com/4t423c4v

@sustainweb.org‬ @oha-updates.bsky.social‬ @foodfoundation.bsky.social‬ @childrensfood.bsky.social‬

🚨 New poll: Public demands bold action on tobacco, alcohol & junk food. With NHS under pressure, 3 in 4 want health over profit. We need a 10-Year Health Plan that puts prevention first.

Children eat more after seeing just five minutes of junk food ads, study finds Researchers call on UK government to close advertising ‘loopholes’ that are ‘driving excess calorie intake’

📄 New study shows that children eat more after watching junk food ads

As Katharine Jenner, director of the @oha-updates.bsky.social says, these findings send “a clear message to policymakers: food advertising is driving excess calorie intake in children."

Blog - Brand Advertising: The Next Policy Frontier - Obesity Health Alliance The UK Government recently confirmed in Parliament that pure brand advertising, i.e. that does not feature identifiable less healthy products, will be exempt from the new 9pm/online advertising restri...

'Brand advertising' 'Alibi marketing' 'Surrogate marketing' 'Brand sharing' - whatever you call it, this is a way for adverts to create brand awareness even if no harmful products are shown. Check out this @oha-updates.bsky.social blog looking at the implications for future policy development:

Big brands send out barrage of junk food ads before obesity rules bite Advertising on snacks rises 26% compared with last year, months before restrictions on promoting unhealthy food come into force

Big food spent £420 million MORE advertising #junkfood in 2024!

Govt MUST stick to 1 Oct deadline for TV & online restrictions & stand up to industry pressure to weaken & delay these regs again.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025... @oha-updates.bsky.social @sustainweb.org @biteback2030.bsky.social

Our research with @oha-updates.bsky.social in 2023 and other recent publications have found issues with lack of funding for local trading standards to effectively enforce the legislation in England – meaning the benefits to public health may yet be fully realised...

ASO attended a Parliamentary roundtable yesterday on the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL), discussing its role in improving public health through sugar reduction.

Great to see @katfoodjenner.bsky.social from @oha-updates.bsky.social on the panel, sharing evidence of its impact and future potential.

We were pleased to organise a Parliamentary discussion on sugar with the APPG for Dentistry and Oral Health and @oha-updates.bsky.social

Our Mick Armstrong spoke movingly about the shame and trauma of the families whose children need to have decayed teeth extracted in hospital.

We're joined by Dee Woods @ifanuk.bsky.social and Kat Jenner @oha-updates.bsky.social who underscore that a "just in case" food system is simply unjust - to public health and wellbeing, to producers and the planet. #Sustain25

The good news is the public overwhelmingly supports protecting policy from industries which harm our health, says Kat Jenner of the Obesity Health Alliance in a joint AR 2025 session. Watch in full now at alcohol-review.com [@instalcstud.bsky.social @oha-updates.bsky.social ‪@ashorg.bsky.social‬]

✨ We've produced a special podcast to mark this year's World Obesity Day featuring:

Dr Stuart Flint of @universityofleeds.bsky.social
Sophie Harris of @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social
Kat Jenner of @oha-updates.bsky.social
Our Food Ambassador Penny Walters

🎧 Listen in full: bit.ly/4iq0KKm

Welcome recs from #CMA following an investigation made possible using our infant #formula price monitoring data. ✅Stronger labelling & ad rules ✅Labelling enforcement ✅Sharing the 🔑 message that all infant formula are nutritionally sufficient ✅Plain labels in NHS www.gov.uk/government/n...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.... @ashleydaltonmp.bsky.social @jessbrownfullermp.bsky.social @oha-updates.bsky.social @childrensfood.bsky.social @bmj.com @daynabrackley.bsky.social

Last week I was pleased to host a parliamentary drop-in with the @oha-updates.bsky.social to bring together health charities, royal colleges & professionals.

We had important discussions on tackling obesity, improving diets & ensuring better access to healthy food. Thanks to all who attended! 🍎

You and Yours - Trading Standards, Mystery Holidays, Village Takeover - BBC Sounds 'Postcode lottery' in trading standards leaves millions of consumer exposed.

Parents talk powerfully abt how unhealthy food is packaged & marketed to appeal to kids in today's
@radio4rne.bsky.social You&Yours today (starts 41 min)
Great interview @oha-updates.bsky.social & Joan Walmsley
talking abt linking tax to health as a #RecipeForChange & www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

BBC Radio 4 - The Food Programme, Broken Policies Sheila Dillon looks into why healthy eating policies often fail and future strategy.

Got the radio on? Our Exec Director, Ben Reynolds, will be on the BBC Food Programme at 11AM this morning talking about broken food policies, and the chance to fix them with the forthcoming UK Government Food Strategy www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... 1/2

📊Our #RecipeforChange report shows huge ranges in sugar & salt across similar foods.
The sugary drinks levy has driven change - it’s time to extend it to food! 🍪🍰 Report 👉https://tinyurl.com/ydpsjbhz

@sustainweb.org @actionsaltsugar.bsky.social @foodfoundation.bsky.social @bhfpolicy.bsky.social

Brilliant to be at the @oha-updates.bsky.social Obesity Health Alliance event with colleagues this week. Great to see so many organisations collaborating on developing great evidence, testing ways to improve dietary quality and supporting policymakers to engage with this important area.

Government urged to introduce national health inequalities strategy The Government is being urged to introduce a national health inequalities strategy to tackle England’s widening health inequality gap, in a new report by the Local Government Association.

@adphuk.bsky.social President @felly500.bsky.social
responds to Local Government Association report.

"Closing the health inequality gap needs an ambitious, health in all policies approach."

👀Read full response➡️ bit.ly/4hL6Qol

bit.ly/4hNLB5r

Background The WHO recommends taxes on sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) to improve population health. We examined changes in volume of and amount of sugar in purchases of soft drinks according to household income and composition, 19 months following the implementation of the UK soft drinks industry levy. Methods Data were from the Kantar Fast Moving Consumer Goods panel, a market research panel which collects data on weekly household purchases (mean weekly number of households=21 908), March 2014–November 2019. Interrupted time series analysis of volume and sugar purchases was used to estimate absolute and relative differences in the volume and amount of sugar in soft drinks, confectionery and alcohol purchased weekly by household income (<£20 000, £20–50 000 or >£50 000) and composition (presence of children (<16 years) in the household (yes or no)), 19 months after soft drinks industry levy (SDIL) implementation, compared with the counterfactual scenario based on pre-announcement trends and using a control group (toiletries). Results By November 2019, purchased weekly sugar in soft drinks fell by 7.46 g (95% CI: 12.05, 2.87) per household but volumes of drinks purchased remained unchanged, compared with the counterfactual. In low-income households, weekly sugar purchased in soft drinks decreased by 14.0% (95% CI: 12.1, 15.9) compared with the counterfactual but in high-income households increased by 3.4% (1.07, 5.75). Among households with children, sugar purchased decreased by 13.7% (12.1, 15.3) but increased in households without children by 5.0% (3.0, 7.0). Low-income households and those with children also reduced their weekly volume of soft drinks purchased by 5.7% (3.7, 7.7) and 8.5% (6.8, 10.2) respectively. There was no evidence of substitution to confectionary or alcohol. Conclusion In the second year following implementation of the SDIL, effects on sugar purchased were greatest in those with the highest pre-SDIL purchasing levels (low-income household…

ICYMI: Our new paper on the impact of the UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy is out. 19 months after implementation, we found that households purchased 7.5g less sugar from soft drinks compared to expected - equivalent to a 2.6% reduction. nutrition.bmj.com/content/earl...

News! The public health grant has today received its first significant real-terms increase after a decade of neglect, something we - and others - have long been calling for.

But it's still 26% down on 2015/16.

More analysis once allocations published later.👀

www.health.org.uk/press-office...

Lib Dem MP Victoria Collins with the WCRF policy team

Lord James Bethell with the WCRF policy team

Labour MP Andrew Gwynne talks to Dr Giota Mitrou from World Cancer Research Fund

Great to be part of the @oha-updates.bsky.social event today at @ukparliament.parliament.uk, where we spoke with MPs and peers about obesity and cancer prevention @drgiotamitrou.bsky.social @ioanav.bsky.social @melissadando.bsky.social

Brilliant to be down in London yesterday for the @oha-updates.bsky.social Parliamentary Drop In Event! Great to have the opportunity to speak to MPs about our work to promote healthier weight and tackle health inequalities.

So great to see other members of the Alliance in person too!

Fantastic to discuss #RecipeforChange campaign with public health minister Andrew Gwynne as part of @oha-updates.bsky.social parliamentary event.

We shared latest insight on why & how we can build on #SDIL sugary drinks tax. See latest blog here: www.recipeforchange.org.uk/news-and-blo...

A reminder of this summary of the evidence given, and the recommendations made, on food, diet and obesity by the expert witnesses in this fab 2 part podcast from @houseoflords.parliament.uk

www.parliament.uk/business/lor...