Not just what’s on the menu - the hidden forces behind food choice

Posted by Helen Moore, Associate Professor (Research) & Fuse Associate, Teesside University 

On Saturday, I had one of those incredibly energising moments that remind you why you do the work you do. I was invited to present at the Right To Food UK Conference at the University of Westminster. It was a powerful event led by Ian Byrne, Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby. The event represented a crucial moment for shaping policy and driving action to realise the right to food in the UK. The room was full of policymakers, researchers, and advocates, all engaged and working together talking about the issues.

So proud to open the UK’s first national Right To Food conference today. No one should be going hungry in the world’s 6th wealthiest nation - hunger is a political choice & it can be solved, so that’s what we want to do: End hunger. #RightToFood #HungerIsAPoliticalChoice pic.twitter.com/p7IdeoeyQT

— lan Byrne MP (@IanByrneMP) September 13, 2025

Fuse Associate Helen Moore pictured third from the left

The invitation to speak followed my attendance at the launch of the Hungry for Change report by the Child of the North All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) earlier in July. It’s been a privilege to be part of this journey, co-authoring the Environments chapter with Andrea Burrows, Amelia Lake and Claire O'Malley from Teesside University and Fuse (the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health), and Mark Green and Emma Boyland from the University of Liverpool.

Our chapter of the report looks at how the places and systems around us shape what we eat, often without us even realising it. We looked at everything from fast food outlets to social supermarkets, to advertising, to digital delivery platforms and planning policy. The big takeaway message? Food environments matter. And crucially they’re not the same for everyone.

So, what’s a food environment?

It’s not just about what’s in your fridge. It’s about what’s available in your local shop, what’s advertised to you on billboards and on your phone or computer screen, what your school or work canteen serves, how far you live from a supermarket, and even what your friends and family eat. It’s shaped by everything from planning and transport networks to cultural norms, pricing strategies, and national policies. Have you ever wondered why your local shops have two pizza places but no greengrocer? That’s a food environment in action. It is shaped by planning decisions, business models, and economic pressures, not just personal choice.

And here’s the kicker: these environments aren’t the same for everyone... If you live in a more deprived area, you’re more likely to be surrounded by cheap, high-calorie options, adverts for these types of foods and are less likely to have access to fresh, affordable food. That’s not a personal failing; it’s structural inequality.

What did our chapter of the report say?

Advertising
We explored how advertising aimed at children overwhelmingly promotes unhealthy foods. Even short exposure to adverts for fast food or sugary drinks can increase kids’ energy intake and influence their choices. And children in more deprived households tend to watch more commercial screen media, making them more vulnerable to this kind of marketing.

Community Food Organisations
We also discussed community food organisations, which are an innovative and alternative food relief model to food banks. They exist to try and tackle both food insecurity and food waste simultaneously. They utilise surplus from mainstream food retailers and sell via the usual supermarket format (adding items to a basket and paying at a checkout) but at greatly reduced prices. With lower costs than a traditional supermarket, and less stigmatising than using free emergency food aid, this model shows promise. Some of these organisations operate beyond a supermarket model, and offer additional social support, such as employment training, guidance with benefit claims, or community-building activities, but this differs across organisations. While these differences demonstrate the adaptability of the model, it also makes it difficult to establish a universal definition of community food organisations.

Fast food, screens, and the rise of dark kitchens
One of the most striking findings of our chapter was the increase in fast food outlet accessibility in the North, with an 84% rise in people living within 1km of a fast-food outlet between 2016 and 2025. However, we now must consider that access to food, including fast food, has moved to the digital space. We’re seeing a shift from people going to their local fast-food outlet to order, to using technology on a variety of screens to order food. In a recent piece of work, we found that one business (a delivery only kitchen, also known as a dark kitchen) could appear as eight different restaurant options on a food delivery app. What looks like more options for consumers, means more visibility for businesses, but all the food will be coming from the same place. It’s clever marketing, but it also widens the gap between consumers and the food they’re eating.

So, is this a problem?

I think it is something that needs looking at, particularly as another aspect of this is that planning regulations as they currently stand, (like preventing takeaways from opening near schools) don’t really apply to these virtual kitchens. They can deliver further, run more cheaply, and bypass traditional oversight. It’s a whole new frontier (this digital food environment), and one we urgently need to understand better.

Why does this matter?

At the conference on Saturday, I had the chance to present some of our report findings and speak directly with people who were interested in making changes in this area and improving food access for all. Seeing their genuine interest, being able to answer questions and provide context, was incredibly rewarding. These are the moments that remind me why this work matters, not just in theory, but in practice.

We need to stop thinking of food environments as neutral. They’re shaped by policy, economics, advertising, culture, marketing and technology. Food environments have been shaped and moulded to encourage us to eat less healthy food. The good news is that they can be reshaped. That means investing in healthier options, regulating advertising and marketing, supporting community food initiatives, and making sure digital platforms don’t become the new food deserts and swamps.

Food is more than just fuel. It’s about dignity, culture, and care. And we all deserve a food environment that supports our health and potential no matter where we’re born. To borrow a line from the report’s foreword: “Food insecurity is not about poor choices – it is about a lack of choices.”

Everyone deserves access to good food. Whether you're a policymaker, a researcher, or someone who just wants better options in your community, there’s a role for you in reshaping the food environment.


🔗 Read the full report here - Hungry for Change: Tackling Obesity and Food Insecurity in the North of England

How can Local Authorities help shape healthier food environments?

Posted by Amelia Lake, Claire O'Malley and Helen Moore, Fuse researchers from Teesside University

This week I joined other health professionals across the country in signing an open letter from the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA) to the Prime Minister, giving our support for new policy reforms, allowing the planning system to better support the creation of healthy, active local communities and reduce health inequalities. The letter was issued alongside the OHA's Local Government Position Statement: “Empowering Communities to Create Healthier Local Food Environments”, which contains a list of recommendations and a supporting package of evidence.

In support of the OHA statement paper and on the back of the news that the government plans to ban junk food TV adverts before 9pm next year, here we highlight the need to make it easier for local authorities to control their local food environments.

Why we need to act now

It’s essential to create healthier environments that make it easier for people to access nutritious food and engage in physical activity. With the cost of living rising, more people are facing food insecurity, and obesity remains a major health issue. Local authorities have a crucial role in shaping healthier communities, but they face challenges due to funding cuts. Despite these difficulties, professionals across the country are working hard, but they need clearer national policies to support their efforts.

The role of National Planning Guidance

Planning guidance should clearly prioritise public health. While policies often focus on individual responsibility, local governments can work with their communities to promote healthier lifestyles. Our research has shown how local authorities can shape healthier environments by collaborating with various stakeholders, from community members to policy makers.

Everyone’s responsibility

Creating healthy food environments requires collaboration among many professionals within local governments. When it comes to handling appeals for fast-food outlets, our research found that good communication between teams is key to defending decisions. It’s also important to understand how fast-food outlets affect communities and health over the long term. To improve the process, professionals should be trained in accessing relevant data and records.

Using regulations to improve the food landscape

Local authorities can use planning regulations to limit the number of fast-food outlets and promote healthier options. For example, in North East town Gateshead, limiting new fast-food outlets near schools, in areas with too many, or in places with high childhood obesity rates has reduced fast-food outlet numbers by 17.5% in just four years. This shows how strategic planning can make a real difference in promoting healthier food choices.

Working with the planning inspectorate

The National Planning Policy Framework supports the idea of “healthy communities,” and local governments can reject fast-food applications if they threaten local health goals. However, these decisions are often appealed, and the Planning Inspectorate makes the final decision. Our Fuse research shows that having a Local Plan in place helps local authorities reject such applications, but even with additional planning documents, success isn’t guaranteed. It's important for new planning guidelines to support public health and ensure that the Planning Inspectorate works with local authorities to meet health priorities.

Regulating outdoor food advertising

We support extending regulations on unhealthy food and drink ads beyond TV and online to outdoor spaces like bus stops. After London banned junk food ads on public transport, local governments began reviewing their advertising policies with the help of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming. Our research in the North East found that almost half of bus shelter ads were for food, and 35% of those were for unhealthy options. Many of these ads appeal to children, which is concerning. Although local governments face challenges due to complex contracts with advertisers - and research has explored the advertising of unhealthy commodities (e.g. tobacco, alcohol, less healthy foods and gambling) - more work is needed to reduce the impact of unhealthy advertising.

The changing food landscape

A recent study in North East England showed that after a new fast-food outlet opened, visits by 11- to 16-year-olds increased significantly within the first nine months. The young people said they were attracted by the taste, low prices, socialising and free Wi-Fi. While this isn’t covered by current fast-food restrictions, it shows the need to look at the entire food system and where outlets are located. Policies that prevent students from leaving school during lunch could also help reduce fast-food consumption.

Another growing trend is "dark kitchens," which only prepare food for delivery services like Deliveroo and Uber Eats. While these kitchens bring economic benefits, they raise public health concerns, especially in low-income areas. Local authorities need to stay informed about this trend and address the challenges it presents, such as the increase in unhealthy food options. Some professionals worry that current regulations for fast-food outlets don’t work well for dark kitchens, so there’s a need to adapt the system to ensure public health is protected.

Monitoring and evaluation

It's important for local authorities to regularly review the food environment and assess how well their policies are working. By collecting and analysing data, they can identify areas for improvement and make sure their strategies are effective and responsive to community needs.

Focusing on these areas will help local governments create environments that support healthy choices and improve the overall wellbeing of their communities. With thoughtful planning and strong community involvement, they can significantly impact public health. To do this effectively, local authorities need clear understanding of planning policies, support from senior management, adequate staff, and the right resources to handle cases efficiently.

Amelia Lake is Professor of Public Health Nutrition at Teesside University, Associate Director of Fuse, the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, a dietitian and public health nutritionist.

Dr Claire O'Malley is a Research Associate at Teesside University and a Fuse Associate member

Helen Moore is an Associate Professor at Teesside University and a Fuse Associate member

Adapted with thanks to the Obesity Health Alliance

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

Children’s exposure to junk food advertising: can the UK hold firm in the face of industry resistance?

Posted by Chris Baker, primary school teacher and distance learning tutor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Growing up in a sweet shop was, as you can imagine, an absolute dream. Who wouldn’t want an entire store of confectionery under their own roof? It was the 1990s and I didn’t realise how lucky I was - living above a newsagent run by my parents. I’d get home from school, give a cursory wave to my mum behind the counter and immediately grab a chocolate bar, or an ice cream. It was the best.

Clearly, it wasn’t a recipe for good health. I was continuously surrounded by the bold and colourful logos, the marketing strategies and the special offers - all designed to hook me into habitual consumption. I paid little attention to the nutritional contents of the things I was snaffling (this was long before front-of-package labelling came along). My physical health (particularly my teeth) paid the price.

Cut to 2020 and I find myself thinking back to that era - before the internet, before screen-time, before social media. I am now a primary school teacher (with experience in public health) committed to promoting children’s health and well-being. I see that the relationship between children and junk food today has not changed all that much. There are still products high in fat, sugar and/or salt that kids crave. And what’s helping them to connect with these products? Digital marketing.

I teach ten and eleven-year-olds in an international school, so the demographic group I am most familiar with is not representative of the UK. However, I believe there are important similarities. Many children of this age now have smartphones and use apps intended for older audiences. Through these apps, they are exposed to new and sophisticated marketing strategies, unheard of by older generations.

Fortunately, there are plans to address this. Last year the UK government proposed a total ban of online marketing for foods high in fat, salt and sugar. Not a restriction, or a tightening of rules: a total ban. The preamble to this consultation suggests that completely reducing exposure to ‘endless prompts’ to eat offers the best way forward. The government’s response to the consultation, with an accompanying plan of action, is due to be published this Spring.

The scope and scale of this proposal are noteworthy. To date, no countries have successfully implemented a complete ban (there are strong restrictions in Chile and French-speaking Canada). Implementation of the government’s proposal would place the UK firmly at the front of the pack, delivering strong policy action with the potential for significant public health benefit.

Unsurprisingly, industries affected by such a ban have been critical of the proposals. In an open letter, a consortium of food companies and advertising agencies called for a rethink. Their arguments are predictable and are representative of a cross-industry playbook, seen repeatedly in recent years across several other industries interested in unhealthy commodities. They claim the proposal is disproportionate. They claim the evidence is lacking in detail. They distance themselves from the issue and play down their role. They demand a meeting with the government to discuss ‘alternative’ (but unspecified) approaches.

A total ban would be an entirely appropriate response in the face of an industry that has altered considerably in recent years. An earlier attempt to merely limit adverts for unhealthy foods in and around children’s tv programming (as well as other non-broadcast media) was found to expose children to no less advertising. Artificial separation of children’s media and adult media is a fallacy, and doesn’t reflect the reality of tv consumption nowadays.

More importantly, this proposal addresses the issue of children’s developing ability to distinguish an advert (and its provenance). Research suggests that over a third of 12-15 year olds are not aware of the financial arrangements behind promotional posts. Astroturfing - the artificially-created “buzz” around a product, designed to look authentic and spontaneous - can be difficult to identify, especially when delivered by a relatable vlogger or influencer, who may not have disclosed endorsement arrangements.

Most schools nowadays (mine included) encourage “digital citizenship”. As a teacher, I am responsible for helping my students navigate the risks and benefits of the internet. Often, I hear children referring to spurious news stories, and am reminded of the sophisticated ways even adults can be tricked into believing something.

Age restrictions for social media platforms, often put forward as a robust mechanism to shield children from inappropriate content, are weak and inconsistently controlled. Parental control settings on popular sites are not widely understood or implemented and the rapid changes in children’s media habits is named as a key driver in the government’s desire to strengthen legislation.

I believe that young people should have the freedom to use television and the internet for enjoyment and education. Exposure to insidious marketing that promotes and profits from the development of unhealthy eating habits should not be a price to pay for this. The UK government has proposed a bold course of action. In the face of strong opposition from industry, they should stay firm with their intentions; the health of future generations stands to benefit.

Let’s kick Coca-Cola out of Christmas for good

Posted by Robin Ireland, Director of Research, Food Active, PhD Candidate, University of Glasgow @robinHEG

You may have thought Coca-Cola invented Christmas. In a sort of way, they did of course. Arguably, modern Santa was designed by an advertising campaign for Coca-Cola in 1933 (Forsyth 2016). And, Santa, whether in the twentieth or twenty-first century, is all about encouraging us to consume. In Coca-Cola’s case, a sweet brown liquid that should logically have absolutely nothing to do with a winter celebration in, originally at least, the Northern Hemisphere.

Coca-Cola has been creative at making up traditions as part of their marketing campaigns since the soft drink was invented in Atlanta, USA, in the late nineteenth century. They have been muscling in on our favourite cultural practices pretty much ever since, in their growth to become a hugely successful and profitable transnational corporation. They have been involved with the Olympics since 1928 when vendors set up branded kiosks in Amsterdam (Keys 2004). A similar relationship with the FIFA World Cup from 1975 was seen as critical at expanding Coca-Cola’s influence into China and the Arab countries (Sugden and Tomlinson 1998).

Coca-Cola expert at manipulating our deepest wishes and our emotions whether they are talking Christmas or football. The pandemic may have prevented their Christmas Truck tour in the UK, but, never fear, their international marketing department is on the case. A two and a half minute commercial on YouTube featuring a little girl and her Dad’s attempts to deliver her letter to Santa at the North Pole had already received over 37 million views at the time of writing, whilst pulling at our heart strings.

Professor Dame Sally Davies, the previous Chief Medical Officer in England, wrote, “Commercial companies use a range of strategies and other approaches to promote products and choices that affect human and environmental health, defined as the commercial determinants of health” (Davies 2019 Annex D, p.4). And Coca-Cola are the masters. Luke Allen (Allen 2020) described the corporation as “virtually a cartoon villain in many public health circles” (p.29). Commercial determinants of health can be divided into four channels in which transnational corporations influence health (Kickbusch et al. 2016). Let’s consider how Coca-Cola use these channels.

The marketing is the most obvious. The red and white Coca-Cola brand is ubiquitous. This year the Christmas Truck Tour will not be visiting Liverpool or Glasgow and other major British cities. But the corporation’s partnership with the Premier League enabled it to tour those city centres in 2019.

This year the Christmas Truck Tour will not be visiting major British cities but the corporation’s 
partnership with the Premier League enabled it to tour those city centres in 2019

How about lobbying then? Marion Nestle (2015) has done a great job in describing how the ‘soda industry’ has learned from the tactics of the tobacco industry in funding dubious research. In funding campaigns and legal challenges to taxes on sugary drinks for example.

As many transnational corporations are criticised for the damage that consumption of their products can cause to human health, so, many try to position themselves as good corporate citizens. Coca-Cola adopt the same tactics and support a number of charities such as FareShare, Street Games, the World Wildlife Fund and Special Olympics GB. It’s sad that in a tough world, it’s often left to corporations to fund good causes rather than government. I thought that had been left in the Victorian age rather than reappearing in the twenty-first century. Coca-Cola also support the Department of Transport’s THINK road safety campaign. In this a volunteer is encouraged to be a Designated Driver to bring intoxicated friends home safely from their Christmas parties. The language of a “responsible drinking culture” is all part of the transnational corporations’ tactics of blaming all of us for believing their marketing and over-consuming their products. That’s right, the soaring levels of overweight and obesity and distressing images of tooth decay amongst youngsters in the UK, are all down to us, the irresponsible parents.

Finally, transnational corporations are experts at developing extensive supply chains to amplify their global ambitions. According to Nestle (2015), Coca-Cola claims to sell its products in two hundred countries with only Cuba and North Korea escaping its clutches. And that’s down to US trade embargoes not to Coca-Cola’s marketing executives.

It’s very hard to argue against Coca-Cola’s Christmas truck tour. Food Active and public health advocates have done so for many years being called the fun police along the way and advocates of the nanny state. We can only speculate the reasons why the tour has been scaled back in the North West in recent years (where Food Active largely operates), but we would take some comfort in the idea that our lobbying played a role in steering the truck off course.

Allen (2020), referenced Coca-Cola’s 2018 annual report, to show the corporation spends approximately US$4 billion per year on advertising. And they wouldn’t be spending that kind of money if the advertising didn’t work. The marketing has persuaded some that Christmas isn’t Christmas without the Coca-Cola Truck Tour. Well, you know the Holidays ARE Coming this year. Because this dreadful pandemic has at least kept some of Coca-Cola’s marketing out of our towns. Let’s just hope that the growing link between obesity and Covid-19 (Alberca et al. 2020) may encourage more to consider how we can limit the advertising of Coca-Cola and other transnational corporations that promote their high in fat, sugar and/or salt products to children. And let’s start to kick Coca-Cola out of Christmas.


References:

Alberca, R.W., Oliveira, L.d.M., Branco, A.C.C.C., Pereira, N.Z. and Sato, M.N. (2020) 'Obesity as a risk factor for COVID-19: an overview', Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 1-15, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2020.1775546.

Allen, L.N. (2020) 'Commercial Determinants of Global Health' in Kickbusch, I., Ganten, D. and Moeti, M., eds., Handbook of Global Health, Geneva: Springer International.

Davies, S.C. (2019) Time to Solve Childhood Obesity, London, available: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/837907/cmo-special-report-childhood-obesity-october-2019.pdf [accessed 27 November 2020].

Forsyth, M. (2016) 'Coca-Cola didn’t invent Santa ... the 10 biggest Christmas myths debunked', The Guardian, 21 December 2016, available: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/dec/21/coca-cola-didnt-invent-santa-the-10-biggest-christmas-myths-debunked [accessed 27 November 2020].

Keys, B. (2004) 'Spreading Peace, Democracy , and Coca-Cola®: Sport and American Cultural Expansion in the 1930s', Diplomatic History, 28(2), 165-196.

Kickbusch, I., Allen, L. and Franz, C. (2016) 'The commercial determinants of health', The Lancet, 4, 895-896.

Nestle, M. (2015) Soda Politics. Taking On Big Soda (And Winning). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sugden, J. and Tomlinson, A. (1998) FIFA and the Contest for World Football. Who rules the peoples' game? , Cambridge: Polity Press.

Image 2: Coca-Cola Tour Bus. Liverpool, March 2019. Photo courtesy of E.Boyland.

The views expressed in posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Fuse (the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health) or the author's employer or organisation.

Brands, bottles and breastfeeding: sharing stories of early motherhood

Introduced by Nat Forster

Guest post by Justine Gallagher, Lecturer at Northumbria University

My own story of infant feeding is based in a community where breastfeeding was, and still is, not the norm. I was the first in my immediate family to breastfeed and I struggled with it in various ways. My breastfeeding journey ended much sooner than I had originally planned, when my son was just six weeks old. Two years later, my own sheer determination helped me to feed my second child, a daughter, for nine months.

Justine's first steps into motherhood

Later, in a professional capacity, I worked supporting families in my role as Community Development Worker in Sure Start Children's Centres. I worked with mothers who had similar feeding stories to my own, as well as many women who had never breastfed. They, like most of the people around me, never had any intention to breastfeed.

The guilt I felt for breastfeeding my first child for a short time stayed with me for a long time. I did not understand why it had such an impact. Why did I feel the need to breastfeed when others around me did not appear to give breastfeeding a second thought? When the opportunity came for me to undertake PhD research, my choice of topic was never in doubt.

My research, which is supervised by Dr Deborah James from Northumbria University, is focused on the infant feeding stories of nine women who live in an area where breastfeeding rates are low. All of the women’s stories are equally important however, for the purposes of this blog I would like to introduce you to Claire (names have been changed to preserve anonymity), who formula fed her baby Sophia from birth.

Claire, her parents and grandparents have lived in the same local area all of their lives. Claire was a single parent and lived with Sophia’s grandparents when her daughter was first born. Sophia’s grandmother took an active part in her care. She looked after Sophia for two nights a week when she was first born, reducing this to just one night per week as time passed. Following a biographical narrative approach, which allows participants to tell their stories without interruption, I asked Claire for her story with the use of a single question;

"So, please can you tell me the story of your experiences of feeding milk to your baby?"

"Well I started when I was pregnant, erm, I’ve always wanted to bottle feed her er, cause there was pink bottles that I wanted to get her erm and also knew the milk that I wanted to put on her erm, and just bottle feeding become very easy to us."

Claire’s story was dominated with discussion of branding and consumer goods. The pink bottles and the various brands of infant formula Claire gave to Sophia reveal the way media and advertising can influence infant feeding practice. Claire demonstrates that she was careful with her bottle-feeding choices. These choices were not arbitrary; she made clear decisions between brands and bottles. Claire wanted me to know that she had made the right choices for her and her daughter.

It was also quite clear that Claire’s identity, as the mother of a daughter, was an important part of her story. The ‘pink’ bottles represent this in a very visible way, she could perform her identity as a mother of a daughter with the right choice of bottle. Claire’s relationship with her own mother was important to her and she appeared keen to demonstrate that this mother-daughter bond would continue for another generation.

These stories help us to understand why some women breastfeed and others do not. Upon reflection, for me, I feel that breastfeeding was about being the best mother I could be, which explains the guilt I felt when I stopped. For Claire, feeding her baby was also about the same thing, only for Claire, being a good mother was about making the right consumption choices. In my thesis, I expand on how Claire’s choices were based on the social norms, the unwritten rules of how to be a mother, in the culture around her.

How big food and drink are using sport

Guest post by Robin Ireland, Director of Research, Food Active and Healthy Stadia

You don't have to do much travelling to realise that the unhealthy alliance between sport and the Food and Drink Industry isn't only an issue in the UK.

I am lucky enough to be visiting New Zealand and Australia at the moment and it's easy to see all the same signs - and very similar marketing campaigns and messaging. Whether it's the All Blacks rugby team being pictured with the product of their "Official Hydration Partner", Gatorade, or the recent Australian Tennis Open full of alcohol advertisements (and I haven't even mentioned cricket), it's clear that the Food and Drink Industry have an international agenda.


Advertising featuring the All Blacks rugby team photographed in New Zealand

In January, the British Medical Journal published an editorial (Ireland and Ashton 2017)1 that I wrote (with Professor John Ashton CBE) about how Coca-Cola's publicity machine was subverting the Christmas message.

If anything, it's even more blatant in sport and we have been aware of it for some time from London's "Obesity Games" (Garde and Rigby 2012)2 to Rio's promotion of ultra-processed foods (Loughborough University)3. Even when spectators want healthier food, this choice is rarely made available to them.

George Monbiot recently referred to "Dark Money" (Monbiot 2017)4 which describes the funding of organisations involved in political advocacy that are not obliged to disclose where the money comes from. In public health terms, we may describe this as Commercial Determinants of Health where industry interests impact on our health. It is often linked to the increasingly sophisticated Corporate Social Responsibility policies being adopted by big corporations.

The latest of these is of course the deal just announced by the English Premier League and Cadburys criticised by the Obesity Health Alliance in a letter to The Times (Obesity Health Alliance 2017)5. Cadburys no doubt will argue that they are taking an ethical position to help educate people. But can we really take a chocolate company seriously that wishes to advise schoolchildren on nutrition, healthy eating and exercise?



FC Bayern München's branded energy drink

It is no coincidence that the mantra parroted by food and drink sponsors is that our diets are down to individual choice and that if we simply took more exercise we wouldn't be having the obesity epidemic now prevalent worldwide. This is rubbish. So called energy and sports drinks should have no part to play in the diet of the average member of the public. Kids do not need more sugar (or more protein for that matter) if they are eating a balanced diet with lots of fruit and veg. But of course the food and drink industry do not make their enormous profits in this way.

It is these concerns - amongst many others - that encouraged myself and colleagues to establish Healthy Stadia in 2005, of which I am a Director. Healthy Stadia takes a holistic and integrated approach to developing sports stadia and clubs as "health promoting settings":

"Healthy Stadia are those which promote the health of visitors, fans, players, employees and the surrounding community" (from Healthy Stadia website)6.

Healthy Stadia's Conference which will be held at the Emirates Stadium, London, in April will be discussing food and drink sponsorship in professional sport among other issues. I anticipate that these topics will come under increasing public scrutiny in years to come, as we develop more awareness of the impact that marketing has on our food and drink choices. (Cairns et al., 2013)7.

Sports fans and public health professionals alike should be questioning how 'Our Beautiful Games' are being manipulated by the Food and Drink Industry to promote ultra-processed food and drink - including alcohol - to audiences, often well populated by impressionable youngsters. Let's see if we can link up the campaigns in different countries to make a louder voice demanding change from the governing bodies of sport.

References:

1. Ireland R and Ashton John R. (2017). Happy corporate holidays from Coca-Cola. BMJ 2017;356:i6833. http://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.i6833. 10 January 2017.
2. Garde A and Rigby N. (2012). Going for gold – should responsible governments raise the bar on sponsorship of the Olympic games and other sporting events by food and beverage companies? Commun Law. 2012:356:42-9.
3. Loughborough University Press Release (2016). Loughborough research calls for change in spectator food and drink provision at sports mega events such as Rio 2016. PR/16/158. http://www.lboro.ac.uk/media-centre/press-releases/2016/december/loughborough-research-calls-for-change-in-spectator-food-and-drink-provision-at-.html. 05 December 2016.
4. Monbiot G. How corporate dark money is taking power on both sides of the Atlantic. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/02/corporate-dark-money-power-atlantic-lobbyists-brexit. 02 February 2017.
5. Obesity Health Alliance (2017). Letter to The Times – Cadbury and Premier League Sponsorship. Accessed online at: http://obesityhealthalliance.org.uk/2017/02/06/letter-times-cadbury-premier-league-sponsorship/?utm_campaign=Cadbury%20letter. 06 February 2017.
6. European Healthy Stadia Network. http://www.healthystadia.eu/about.html
7. Cairns G, Angus K, Hastings, G and Caraher M (2013). Systematic reviews of the evidence on the nature, extent and effects of food marketing to children. A retrospective summary. Appetite 2013: 356:209-15. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666312001511. 03 March 2013.

All views expressed are exclusively those of the author.