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A leading heart specialist has said that children are on the front line in Britain's war of the waistlines and he believes Government efforts to promote healthier eating will never work so long as the industry self-regulates

Dr Aseem Malhotra, a cardiology specialist registrar at Harefield Hospital, has written an article in The Observer newspaper about a recent forum he attended that was called by Jamie Oliver to discuss the ‘obesity epidemic’.

The gathering included Professor David Haslam, chair of the Child Obesity Forum, and Professor Terence Stephenson, chair of the Royal College of Paediatrics.

Dr Malhotra said the forum emphasised the need to increase integration between health professionals and schools, backed up by enabling the teaching profession to reinforce the message.

He added: “There are some obvious discrepancies in the campaign to promote healthy eating. The Government awards healthy school status to those that meet its guidelines – but it does not include control over what food children bring from home.

“What's more, while all maintained schools are required by law to comply with food standards, non-maintained and independent schools are not obliged to do so.

“So for 580,000 children educated privately, it is up to their schools to determine standards. Also, academies set up from September 2010 do not need to comply with the standards and are free to promote healthy eating and good nutrition as they see fit.

“The Government needs to be more accountable. The School Food Trust, which advises it, has made inroads in improving nutritional standards of school dinners but most children in primary and secondary schools take in packed lunches where there is no regulation.”

He said food corporations often focused on personal responsibility as the cause of the nation's unhealthy diet and raised fears that Government action challenged freedoms.

“But this obscures the reality that some of the most significant health advances have been made by population-based public health approaches in which the overall welfare of the population trumps certain individual or industry freedoms.”

The full article can be read by visiting: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/mar/11/obesity-children-healthcare-food-industry.