GPs must be ‘supported’ to help patients impacted by ultra-processed food, says BMA
GPs should be ‘properly supported and resourced’ to help patients impacted by unhealthy ultra-processed food diets, the BMA has said.
In a new report on the impact of ultra-processed foods, the BMA said that the Government’s current approach to regulating, producing, marketing, and distributing food is ‘failing to protect public health’.
The report found that on average, 66% of children’s daily energy intake comes from ultra-processed foods (UPFs), and over 70% of school lunches, whether prepared at home or at school, are made up of these products.
UPFs are industrially manufactured products containing ingredients and additives rarely found in home cooking and are typically low in nutrients.
The dietary patterns described in the report ‘are contributing to rising rates of overweight and obesity’, the union said, with over 35% of 10-11-year-olds and 64% of adults in England classified as overweight or obese – and the BMA warned that this is driving increases in type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other preventable conditions.
The report said: ‘UPFs are a rising concern of doctors due to the association between many of these
foods and adverse health outcomes.
‘Whilst some processing of food can be beneficial to health (e.g., increased safety, fortification), UPFs have been associated with ill-health and obesity. UPFs are often high in saturated fats, sugars, and salt, but low in nutrients, particularly fibre and low in fruit and vegetables.’
The union argued that with the growing public interest and debate around UPFs, as well as increased interest in weight loss medications, patients are ‘more likely to approach their GPs for advice’ and treatment in this area.
But they must be supported to provide this care and advice, and barriers preventing referrals to dieticians and weight management services should be removed, the union said.
It said: ‘Assisting patients to make the lifestyle changes necessary for them to live more healthily is important to medical professionals. However, it is crucial that they are properly supported and resourced to do this.
‘Doctors must be supported to provide this care and advice with adequate appointment lengths along with quality information and guidance.
‘The importance of a multi-disciplinary approach must also be recognised. For example, when GPs identify someone who might need extra support, they need to be able to refer them to appropriate care such as dieticians and weight management services.
‘Therefore, it is crucial that there is comprehensive provision of these services, barriers to accessing them are removed and that they are properly funded.’
Among other recommendations (see box), the report concluded that doctors and other health
professionals, such as dieticians, will need to be supported to respond to demand for guidance on healthy eating and healthy lifestyles, rising levels of obesity and diet related ill-health.
Professor David Strain, BMA board of science chair, and Dr Heather Grimbaldeston, BMA public health medicine committee chair, said: ‘Every day, doctors see the preventable impact of poor diets on children and young people.
‘Ultra-processed foods dominate what children eat, fuelling rising obesity rates and other serious health problems, placing enormous pressure on the NHS, while a small number of major food companies account for the vast majority of junk food advertising children see on TV.
‘Relying on voluntary measures has failed, and responsibility cannot be placed solely on families when unhealthy food is so heavily promoted and long promised protections for children have been repeatedly delayed.
‘The Government must go further to regulate the marketing and availability of unhealthy foods, while ensuring healthier, minimally processed foods are accessible and affordable for all.’
A House of Lords committee has previously warned that tough measures are needed to fix the UK’s ‘broken food system’ and tackle the obesity crisis.
The recommendations in full
The BMA is calling for UK Government to:
- Implement without further delay effective regulation and policies. The UK has suffered from a succession of voluntary policies alongside delayed and weakened regulation. This needs to change and promising pledges to address obesity made in the recent 10 Year Health Plan for England must be acted on without delay.
- Increase industry accountability and reduce industry influence. Remove the focus on individual responsibility and strengthen the regulation of industry to reduce their influence over high consumption of unhealthy food through:
– limited influence over the delay and prevention of implementing positive food policies;
– prevention of influencing food policy design;
– implementing and enforcing mandatory schemes to reduce consumption of
unhealthy food, rather than relying on voluntary schemes;
– restricted advertising and marketing of unhealthy food. - Reduce the high levels of UPF consumed by children and young people through introducing regulation to ensure schools have to offer more whole and minimally processed foods and stricter regulation of commercial baby and toddler food that is ultra-processed and HFSS with mandatory measures for manufacturers.
- Improve access and affordability of healthy food. Ensure everyone, including those from lower income groups, has access to healthier, whole and minimally processed foods
- Invest in stronger research on UPFs to enhance existing policy design. Research with strong methodologies that can identify the exact causes of poor health outcomes associated with food processing is needed to inform government regulation of UPF.
- Improve public awareness of what healthy diets look like and what UPFs are particularly unhealthy. Alongside improved regulation, clear and accessible guidance for the public is needed, in addition to a well-resourced and supported health workforce to meet increased demand for information and treatment.
Source: BMA report
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READERS' COMMENTS [4]
Please note, only GPs are permitted to add comments to articles
Negative information on UPFs has been pumped out for decades.
People choose to ignore this advice.
Nobody thinks a Big Mac is healthier than a green salad.
“The public wants what they want public gets”, as Mr Weller sang.
“Remove the focus on individual responsibility”…..this is insane, along with the trend of classifying obesity as a “disease”.
So now it’s OUR problem when patients wilfully ignore sensible dietary advice, with the inevitable demand for quick-fix budget-demolishing magic fat jabs free on The Nash overwhelming Primary Care, which will be reduced to a glorified weight loss management service.
The abandonment of personal responsibility is the cause of the obesity epidemic, not the cure.
what constitutes a healthy unprocessed diet hasn’t changed.
as David Banner says- known for decades
Now more than ever ignorance is no excuse in this era of entirely free information accessible to all from every inch of the UK.
Perhaps people could spend even 0.1% of their annual sofa hours filling any knowledge gaps via those devices we all have
Tackle it at its cause and blame the rich and powerful corporate villains rather than the victims. UPFs should go the same way as ciggies – high taxes, stigmatised, negative coverage and new legislation/warning labels. And throw “health externalities” taxes at Nestle, Unilever, Coca-Cola etc, and force through changes to capital accounting.
There should be no food poverty in a rich country, so I like the post-war idea of bringing back public-provided Community Kitchens run locally out of churches (and other faith places), pubs, supermarkets and schools, providing at least 1 nutritious meal a day for those who need/want it.
Have some vision, Starmer!
If we are to be funded to do this then I am happy to take the patient, in my car, to the local fruit and veg department and point out the differences between brightly coloured healthy food and beige artery blockers. I’ll take my Ishihara plates just in case they are colour blind!