No quick fix for obesity epidemic

I note with alarm the latest golden-ticket solution to the nation’s obesity “crisis” (Food labels showing level of exercise needed to walk it off ‘could cut obesity’, 11 December). In my recovery from an eating disorder, I will not be alone in being appalled by this proposition. It is hard enough to battle my mental demons in our exercise- and food-obsessed society, without those demons being given assistance by such a sledgehammer approach to what is a very nuanced and often personal problem.

I appreciate that tackling obesity is an important issue, especially with regard to children, but even if some people were persuaded to change their behaviour by this scheme, I would suggest that the collateral damage to others in my situation would be very considerable.
John Evans
Author of Becoming John: Anorexia’s Not Just for Girls

• Your article quotes Prof Amanda Daley saying that “People think that obesity is caused by gluttony. It isn’t. Obesity is caused by all of us eating just a little bit too much.” Obesity is neither caused by gluttony nor by just eating a bit too much. Diet-related illnesses are caused by a broken food system. Obesity is caused by what food we as a society produce, where we produce it, how we process it, how we price and market it, and how we consume it. Sadly, unhealthy diets are just one of the ways our broken food system severely impacts our health and wellbeing – there’s also malnutrition, contamination and exposure, ecological degradation, social injustice, erosion of rural livelihoods and more.

Efforts like the introduction of clear, informative labelling and advice are well-meaning, good and necessary, but we need to expand our framing of the challenges we face when it comes to health and food if we are really going to address these problems. Only when health risks are viewed in their entirety through a systems lens can we adequately assess the problem, the solutions, and the risks and trade-offs we will need to consider as we grapple with how to mobilise the most effective levers of change to tackle the obesity crisis.
Ruth Richardson
Executive director, Global Alliance for the Future of Food

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters

• Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition