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New Government Anti-Obesity Plan Could Shrink Pizzas Or Restrict Number Of Toppings

New Government Anti-Obesity Plan Could Shrink Pizzas Or Restrict Number Of Toppings

Forget super-sizing, looks like your favourite fast foods could be downsizing

Jake Massey

Jake Massey

The government has recently met with some of the UK's biggest fast food providers to discuss plans to cap calories under new measures that could affect a number of the nation's favourite foods.

This could mean that things like pizzas, pies, ready meals, and even sandwiches could be forced to cut back on the calories to meet with the proposed requirements.

via GIPHY

At the beginning of this week, government representatives met with manufacturers and retailers like McDonald's, Domino's Pizza, Just Eat, KFC and Deliveroo to discuss their plans to cap the number of calories that thousands of extremely popular foods contain.

This is an attempt to curb Britain's ongoing obesity crisis. New figures show that levels of obesity in children have skyrocketed in recent years, increasing by more than a third in total over the past decade.

That means one out of every five schoolchildren is obese when they leave primary school. There are also 24,000 who can be classed as 'severely obese'. That's a lot of kids.

McDonald's has removed artificial colors, flavors and preservatives from its top-selling burgers.
PA

Dr Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at Public Health England (PHE), said 'drastic' measures needed to be taken in order to tackle a health threat to children which has been 'decades in the making'.

Speaking to the Telegraph, she said: "We know that just having healthy options on the menu won't change the nation's habits - we need the default option to have fewer calories. The default options for pizzas are margherita and pepperoni pizzas, so we need them to get healthier.

"It could mean less meat on a pizza, it could mean less cheese, it could mean a smaller size. Consumers are saying they want smaller portions and healthier options."

Clearly, the consumers Dr Tedstone has been talking to aren't those you find in your typical pizza takeaway at 3.30am on a Sunday morning.

"Yeah, can I have the cheese crust meat feast please, but easy on the meat and the cheese please, and can you make sure it's a little bit smaller too, ta." ... said nobody ever.

The proposals are just one branch of a government scheme tasked with tackling the growing problem of childhood obesity. Other proposals include calorie counts on all restaurant menus and a ban on adverts for unhealthy foods before the 9pm watershed. Such items would also be excluded from two for one deals and removed from checkouts, to help perturb binge scoffing and impulse indulgences.

New figures from NHS Digital reveal that 4.2 percent of children leaving primary school are now classed as 'severely obese', which means they are above the 99.6th percentile on growth charts from 1990.

Featured Image Credit: Creative Commons/Tom Hilton

Topics: Food, UK News, Health