Campaigns

A ban on junk-food advertising on TV before 9pm

The government has gone some way towards banning junk-food ads on TV, but only during children's programmes. But the ban needs to go further, to 9pm, because many kids watch TV up to 9pm.

It's tragic that our kids are being brain-washed into eating the nutritional sewage that is junk food. Aren't child obesity levels too high already?

Write to your MP and push for the ban to be extended to 9pm.

More sports facilities for London's youths in deprived areas

There's no reason why London cannot be the sporting capital of the world, now we have the kick-start of the 2012 Olympics.

Why not capitalise on this and build enough sporting facilities in London so that kids have something healthy and constructive to do, rather than roaming the streets in gangs and committing crime.

The government invests far too little in sporting activities for London's young people. For most people in London, a personal trainer is beyond their budget. Why won't the Government promote physical fitness on a scale that actually has an impact, by making personal trainers available on the NHS for group coaching.

What facilities are available and affordable for your kids in your Borough? Write to your MP and press for more. Nothing will happen unless we make it happen.

A total ban on hydrogenated fats in processed foods

Hydrogenated fats are artificial fats manufactured by the food industry purely for the benefit of the manufacturers, and at a heavy health cost for the rest of us.

By forcing hydrogen into polyunsaturated oils, the food industry creates an artificial fat that is solid at room temperature. These hydrogenated fats, or trans-fats, are then mixed into a whole variety of junk-foods to extend their shelf-life, make them bulkier, and to carry various additives/artificial colours/preservatives, and in the case of spreads like peanut butter, they are easier to spread.

Why are they so bad for you? Because their saturated fat content is extremely high, attacking the heart and the arteries. They are even worse for you than naturally occurring saturated fats, because they not only raise your bad cholesterol levels (LDL), they also lower your good cholesterol levels (HDL) due to the change in chemical structure that hydrogenation causes.

Some fast-food chains are even getting away with calling the oil they use 'vegetable oil' without revealing the fact it is hydrogenated.

Hydrogenated/trans fats are found in fast food, some ready-meals, cakes, biscuits, confectionery and many other junk-foods.

Write to your MP and call for a total ban on hydrogenated fats in food.

More effective measures to curb binge-drinking

Alcohol is toxic to every cell in your body, particularly to vital organs like your brain and liver. We are drinking more than ever before, and the cost to the nation is around £20bn a year in health/crime/social consequences. Deaths from alcohol consumption have risen from 4,000 in 1991 to over 8,000 deaths in 2005.

Government information campaigns are clearly not enough. We need increased taxes on alcohol, an end to supermarkets selling alcohol at cost price to draw in customers, stricter enforcement of the laws on selling alcohol to children, curbs on alcohol advertising, and labelling on alcohol bottles warning of the dangers of excessive drinking.

The British Beer and Pub Association rejects most of these measures, and seeks to discredit authoritative reports such as the 2006 Anderson Report that recommended increase prices, reduce availability, and restrict advertising. Could it be that the alcohol industry is more concerned about its profits than the health of the nation?

In Channel 4's Dispatches - 'Drinking Yourself to Death' - aired on 18th June 2007, the Wine & Spirits Trade Association denied that lower alcohol prices led to increased alcohol consumption. You can draw your own conclusions.

The British Liver Trust is pushing for more explicit labelling to warn of the dangers of excessive drinking. Part of the problem is that we drink more units than we think we do. One can of Stella Artois is 2.3 units. A large glass of 11% strength wine is 3.5 units. Yet the labelling on bottles is so small and faint that you really have to search for it.

Write to your MP and call for more effective measures to curb binge-drinking.