Nutrition and health

Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: A Cross-Government Strategy for England

Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives is the £372 million cross-government strategy to help prevent obesity in the UK. The strategy, published in January 2008 by the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson and the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, aims to reduce, by 2020, current childhood obesity and overweight to 2000 levels.

This comprehensive strategy supports the creation of a healthy society throughout life by promoting positive changes in many areas – from schools, food and physical activity to transport and the health service.

It brings together many players – communities, individuals, the food industry, employers and other stakeholders – to promote children’s health, good nutrition, physical activity and healthy workplaces. It also aims to provide an environment that facilitates healthier lifestyles.

Change4Life – eat well, move more, live longer

Change4Life is a new movement, supported by the Department of Health, which aims to improve children’s diets and levels of activity by involving the whole family.

Change4Life is being developed with the help of national, regional and local partners – including government, health care professionals, the media, and commercial and voluntary sectors.

5 A DAY campaign

The government’s 5 A DAY campaign, which began in 2002, aims to encourage people to eat more of a variety of at least five different portions (equating to approx 400g in total) of fruit and vegetables a day.

The 5 A DAY Top Tips for Top Mums campaign aims to motivate low-income mums (dads and guardians too) to improve their children’s diets. They can achieve this, at no extra cost, with the help of tips from other mums and dads.

Try our healthy fruit and vegetable recipes.

Healthy Towns initiative

Healthy Towns is a new Department of Health initiative to help curb the rising levels of obesity in the UK. As part of the scheme, any town in England could bid for up to £5 million to improve the health of its citizens.

The idea is based on the successful French scheme EPODE (Ensemble, Prévenons l'Obésité Des Enfants). After launching in 2004 as a pilot project to reduce childhood obesity, the scheme now involves 167 French towns and more than 1 million people. The idea is that the whole community, including schools, health professionals, local authorities and industry, is mobilised to create a healthier environment.

Front-of-pack labelling schemes

Front-of-pack nutrition labelling schemes have been introduced to help improve consumers’ diet. They enable consumers to clearly see the levels of salt, fat and sugar in foods sold in shops. There are a number of front-of-pack schemes that use different formats to present nutritional information.

The three main front-of-pack nutrition labelling methods used in the UK are:

• One-colour schemes providing information on percentage of Guideline Daily Amount (GDA)
• Traffic light colour-coded schemes indicating nutrient levels
• Schemes that provide both a traffic light colour code and percentage of GDA

Food Standards Agency (FSA) Traffic light front-of-pack labelling scheme

The traffic light scheme on the front of the pack shows at a glance if the food has high, medium or low amounts of fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt. In addition to traffic light colours, the labels show the number of grams of fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt in what the manufacturer or retailer suggests as a 'serving' of the food. WCRF UK supports the traffic light scheme, which helps consumers achieve a balanced diet.

Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) scheme

Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) are a guide to how much energy and key nutrients the average healthy person needs in order to have a balanced diet. GDA labels show at a glance how much of each key nutrient (i.e. calories, sugars, fat, saturated fats and salt) is contained in a portion of food as a proportion of the average daily requirements for each. All the Guideline Daily Amounts are based on the estimated requirements for an average adult of healthy weight and average activity level.  

The Food Standards Agency has commissioned independent research to evaluate shoppers' understanding of front-of-pack nutrition labels in use in the UK and to asses which scheme better contributes to healthier eating choices.

Order WCRF UK’s Understanding Food Labels leaflet.