Food drive 'fundamentally flawed'

The way families eat is hugely varied

Healthy eating campaigns risk failure because they do not take enough notice of the different circumstances facing families, says a report.

Even high-profile initiatives, such as those by chef Jamie Oliver, can only reap short-term benefits, it argues

Too many fall back on the "blame culture" when offering advice, it says.

Its authors, from Sheffield and London universities, say the way forward is to invest in programmes "tailored" for different types of family.

Although government policy makes some acknowledgement of the impact of poverty and other social factors, this often takes second place to the 'blame' culture Professor Peter Jackson Sheffield University

The government has spent heavily on healthy eating programmes in recent years, from the "five-a-day" fruit and vegetable challenge, to the "cook and eat" scheme to teach basic cookery skills to children.

However, the report, which cost £1.2m to produce, suggests that despite high awareness among families about what they should be eating, overall the national diet has not improved greatly.

This, said Sheffield University researcher Professor Peter Jackson, was because many families would struggle to meet the requirements set out in the initiatives.

He said: "If government advice on healthy eating is to have a serious impact, it needs to be framed within a better understanding of the diversity of everyday family lives.

"Take, for example, the advice that families should sit down and eat together, which just doesn't work when the kids come home starving from school at four o'clock, and a mother or father might not be back for another couple of hours.

"If one of the recipes you're pushing needs broccoli, but the person you're aiming it at can't get or afford the ingredients, it's not going to work."

Blame game

He said that the way families ate was often deeply ingrained in their culture, and many campaigns left people with the impression that their parenting skills were not up to scratch, he said.

"Although government policy makes some acknowledgement of the impact of poverty and other social factors, this often takes second place to the 'blame' culture," he said.

"People may have been shocked to see mothers sneaking junk food into schools, but instead of turning the spotlight on them, the government needs to look at the root causes of why parents behave in this way."

He said that there were "no quick fixes", but that government would need to consider spending more to make sure that healthy eating programmes were targeted at the right people.

"The price of not doing it, in terms of obesity, is far higher," he said.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "We know from our research that half of all families, regardless of their type, find the issue of food stressful.

"That's why we have established Change4Life. To start a national movement which will include supermarkets, local leisure centres, the media - anyone who wants to come on board and get England healthy."