Simon Dolby is Chief Executive of the KM Charity Team which organises the Kent Walk to School Campaign. The charity works with 200 primary schools – some 44,000 children – in Kent, Medway and Bexley delivering green travel to school schemes.

Opinion: Pizza should not be part of your five-a-day

Government plans to trumpet pizza as part of the five-a-day needed for a healthy diet sends all the wrong signals to our increasingly obese nation.

Public Health England are considering whether to add the five-a-day logo to 350 foods including microwave ready meals and pizza.

While a tiny number of these may have merit it is a depressing fact that this organisation feels it has to move with the times and help the public navigate foods that really have no place in a balanced diet.

Pizza is a great occasional treat, but to pretend something with such a high fat content is actually good for you, defies belief.

Obesity levels are growing at an alarming rate. Here in Kent nine per cent of children are obese when they start primary school. By the time they move to secondary school the figure has jumped to 18 per cent . How can labelling ready meals as part of a five-a-day help reverse this crisis and the financial burden it places on our NHS?

Western societies do actually have a model to follow if they want to tackle the issue. Denmark has successfully taken on childhood obesity.

A scheme in the town of Holbaek has treated 1,900 patients and helped 70 per cent of them to maintain normal weight by adjusting about 20 elements of their lifestyles.

Lifestyle changes and regular exercise are key ingredients, of course, to this success and our own NHS would do well to import this type of proven initiative.

But for goodness sake, don’t make the job tougher by labeling pizza as healthy. It is critical we have a co-ordinated approach to tackling the obesity time bomb.

References:

BBC report on planned changes.

KM KentOnline report into childhood obesity

BBC report into Danish solution to childhood obesity

Keep up to date with Simon Dolby's blog 'Simon Says' as well as KM Walk to School news and more by signing up for the monthly free enewsletter at www.kmcharityteam.co.uk.