British youth aims to Bite Back against obesity, poor health

Co-founded by British chef, restaurateur, TV personality and healthy eating activist James Oliver, Bite Back 2030 is a youth-led platform that aims to ensure the government meets its commitment to halve childhood obesity by 2030. What do you think of this campaign to raise awareness of their goals and make us all take a look at how the food-purchasing environment - including advertising - is detrimental to the health of our young people? Reports emerged in early 2021 on the prevalence of worse outcomes from the COVID-19 coronavirus among those who are overweight or obese, with the USA and the UK both high in the rankings. "Covid-19 has only further served to highlight the injustices in the food system and sharpen the focus on the impact obesity has on health outcomes," says Bite Back 2030. "Young people today are consuming too much unhealthy food, processed food, snacks, soft drinks and takeaways, and this is especially prevalent with young people from poorer backgrounds because unhealthy food is cheap and easy to access. 3.3m young people under the age of 18 are overweight or have obesity, and rates among our poorest are double those of our wealthiest young people." Founded in 2019, Bite Back 2030 added its voice to other initiatives which have been calling for changes to the way HFSS (high in fat, salt, sugar) foods are advertised to young people, and in July 2020 the British government announced a ban on 'junk food' ads on TV before a 9pm watershed. To see how we can be influenced by social media and personal data mining, watch this 2'30" spot by Bite Back inm 2019: https://youtu.be/TLf2gOrL1iM. Do we need more of this kind of awareness for everyone?

Keywords: Bite Back 2030, healhy eating, young people's health UK, UK childhood obesity, food ads, junk food, data mining for advertising, Jamie Oliver food activism