Children will learn to “love good food” if schools start teaching their students how to cook healthy meals, according to the Great British Bake Off’s Prue Leith.
The South African restaurateur thinks we should avoid using weight-loss injections like Ozempic as they “take the joy out of life”, and instead try to prevent people becoming obese by educating children on healthy foods.
She thinks weight-loss jabs should only be given to adults living with ‘chronic’ obesity who urgently need to lose weight.
- Obesity and alcohol increase bowel cancer deaths in young women
- Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity triggered by childhood stress
- Depression linked to putting on more weight for people with obesity
Prue, 83, said: “It’s the wrong answer because you have to go on jabbing yourself for the rest of your life and that can’t be entirely good.
“You’re taking the joy out of life. It would be better if you could just get to love food that is good for you.”
She added: “The only way we’ll stop children going for something that is easy and delicious is by getting them to love good food. It’s easy to do.”
Weight-loss injections such as Ozempic and Wegovy make people feel full for longer by mimicking a natural hormone.
Made by Novo Nordisk, Ozempic was created to treat people living with diabetes, while Wegovy is for individuals looking to lose weight.
Within weeks, the UK will start supplying Mounjaro, otherwise known as the ‘King Kong’ of weight loss injections.
- Insulin sensitivity benefits of medication used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity
- NHS deals with 3,000 hospital admissions each day due to obesity
- Britain’s obesity epidemic is costing £100 billion a year
According to ministers, the injections will transform how the country treats obesity – a condition which costs the NHS billions of pounds per year.
However, when people stop taking the jabs, they are prone to putting the weight they have lost back on – meaning users are likely to use the injections for life.
Common side effects of the weight-loss jabs include constipation, diarrhoea, stomach pain, dizziness, nausea, headaches and fatigue.
Data shows that more than 60% of adults living in England are overweight, while one in 10 children are classed as obese by the time they start primary school.
