Parents should be banned from dropping their children off at the school gate to help tackle childhood obesity, said new public health chief.
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| The number of five to 19-year-olds admitted to hospital with obesity related conditions increased from 872 to 3,806 between 2000 and 2009 in England and Wales |
Professor John Ashton said children should be made to walk a quarter of a mile each day to keep them fit and prevent obesity.
He told The Times: “We're used to this idea that our children are not going to be as well off as we have been. But I don't think anybody has really expressed yet that they may not be as healthy either."
He told The Times: “We're used to this idea that our children are not going to be as well off as we have been. But I don't think anybody has really expressed yet that they may not be as healthy either."
He said the "nanny state" should not stand in the way of strong government action to improve health, particularly for children.
Professor Ashton, who takes over as president of the Faculty of Public Health today, added that the next generation face economic challenges as well as dangers from a diet of junk food and lack of exercise.
The combination of factors could produce a crisis which is "in danger of writing off a generation", he added.
He hailed a change in the traditional school run as a preventative measure against childhood obesity and unfit young people.
"One of the things we should be doing is really strictly prohibiting cars stopping outside school to drop kids off but having drop-off points, if at all, a few hundred yards away so at least the children get to walk a quarter of a mile each day from the dropping-off point ... it would make a difference,” he told the newspaper.
Justine Roberts, chief executive of Mumsnet, said: "I suspect there will be a mixed reaction to this because some people will find it quite hard to manage in practical terms."
NHS statistics recently showed the number of children being admitted to hospital for obesity related problems has quadrupled in less than a decade.
The number of five to 19-year-olds admitted to hospital with obesity related conditions increased from 872 to 3,806 between 2000 and 2009 in England and Wales.
Professor Ashton said that cities must be restructured and re-engineered to tackle the problems with modern life that are driving rises in obesity and other public health failures.
He said that public health efforts must focus on town planning as much as on general health and argued that diet, exercise and stress must be united as symptoms of a deeper problem with modern lifestyles.
The new public health chief called for Britain to look back to the Victorian era to find a sense of ambition, to try to prevent diseases and lengthen life.
"One of the things we should be doing is really strictly prohibiting cars stopping outside school to drop kids off but having drop-off points, if at all, a few hundred yards away so at least the children get to walk a quarter of a mile each day from the dropping-off point ... it would make a difference,” he told the newspaper.
Justine Roberts, chief executive of Mumsnet, said: "I suspect there will be a mixed reaction to this because some people will find it quite hard to manage in practical terms."
NHS statistics recently showed the number of children being admitted to hospital for obesity related problems has quadrupled in less than a decade.
The number of five to 19-year-olds admitted to hospital with obesity related conditions increased from 872 to 3,806 between 2000 and 2009 in England and Wales.
Professor Ashton said that cities must be restructured and re-engineered to tackle the problems with modern life that are driving rises in obesity and other public health failures.
He said that public health efforts must focus on town planning as much as on general health and argued that diet, exercise and stress must be united as symptoms of a deeper problem with modern lifestyles.
The new public health chief called for Britain to look back to the Victorian era to find a sense of ambition, to try to prevent diseases and lengthen life.
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