Website of the Department of Health

The figures are set out in the new Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives toolkit, which is available to all PCTs and Local Authorities to help them tackle obesity in their areas and help their citizens live healthier lives.

The toolkit also gives advice on how local health professionals can support and help people in their areas to eat more healthily and be more active. It also uses research from the up coming Change4Life campaign to give insight into why families and parents find it difficult to live healthy lives.

The toolkit provides plenty of insight, including:

• parents don't recognise that their children are overweight – just 11.5 per cent of parents with overweight or obese children recognise it
• parents underestimate how much unhealthy food and convenience food they buy as well as overestimating the amount of activity their children do
• only 38 per cent of adults know that obesity can lead to heart disease and only 6 per cent know about the link of being overweight to cancer
• many families use snacks as rewards, as fillers during times of boredom and to appease conflict
• parents of older children are more worried about not feeding them enough and the risk of eating disorders such as anorexia
• lack of knowledge, confidence and skills is the main barrier which stops parents cooking from scratch.

Change4Life is a new national movement which launches this autumn before a major publicity campaign starts in January. This movement will help people throughout England to live healthier, more active lives.

• Healthy Weight Healthy Lives A toolkit for developing local strategies