Our healthy weight principles provide an ambitious, evidence-based standard that guides our work to achieve the following aims:
- To increase physical activity and healthy eating patterns across the population, with a focus on our most vulnerable residents.
- To encourage healthy relationships with physical activity, food, and body image.
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We anticipate that this work will contribute to an increased proportion of residents maintaining a ‘healthy weight’, alongside wider improvements in health and wellbeing.
1. We ensure the easiest option is the healthier option
Our physical and social environments can make it difficult to eat healthily and get the exercise that we need. The degree to which this is true for different communities is inequitable. For example, fast-food outlets in Islington are concentrated in the areas of greatest deprivation. As a result, we see health inequalities in the borough such as disproportionate rates of overweight and obesity in people living in more deprived areas and black ethnic groups. Our approach seeks to promote equitable access to healthy food and physical activity so that it’s easier for all residents to lead lives that support their health. This way, not all the responsibility is on the individual.
We also recognise that poor diet and lack of physical activity can contribute to wider societal inequalities, for example, affecting educational attainment or making it harder to sustain employment. Our work to tackle inequalities will therefore aim to directly improve health through diet and physical activity, but also indirectly improve other outcomes affected by diet, physical activity and weight, thereby tackling wider societal inequalities.
2. We do not stigmatise weight
People who are underweight, overweight or obese are often stigmatised in our society. This has a negative impact on people’s mental and physical health. By tackling weight stigma through our communications and in healthcare services, we can better support people to achieve their health goals regardless of their weight.
These attitudes may change over time, especially as new ways of losing and managing weight become available. Our approach will keep track of these changes and tackle stigma however it shows up.
3. We support health at different sizes
A ‘healthy weight’ can be difficult to achieve, and there are many biological, social and environmental reasons for this. Our approach will help residents meet their nutritional and physical activity needs, without focusing solely on weight. Weight should be seen as a ‘proxy’ measure for overall health. Eating well and keeping active can improve your health, whether your weight changes or not. By not focusing solely on weight, we can better support people to achieve their health goals without perpetuating poor relationships with the body, exercise and food. This principle also supports our focus on early intervention: helping everyone avoid developing health or weight issues in the future.
4. We take an inclusive and culturally competent approach
There are cultural differences in attitudes to body size, food and ways to stay active. As a diverse and vibrant borough, we will make sure that our approach to healthy eating and physical activity is inclusive of different cultures. For example, we will tailor our communications and advice to different communities: reflecting a variety of cultural practices around food and ways to move the body.
5. We deliver early interventions and support across the life course
People’s relationships to food, physical activity and body-image start at an early age. Our approach will prioritise early-years support, because we know that helping families with children between 0-4 years old can have a life-long positive impact. Additionally, we recognise adolescence as a pivotal life stage where the social environment is key in developing independent healthy habits and attitudes towards food, physical activity and body image.
Although these life stages will be a focus of our work, we acknowledge that eating healthy and staying active is a life-long endeavour. We will tailor our approach to meet the needs of people at different points in their lives.
6. We support the whole family
Both food and physical activity are important ways that we connect and socialise with people. Whole family approaches support families and households to weave healthy food and physical activity into their lives and shared environments, making it easier to sustain changes together. Children especially rely on the adults in their lives to create an environment that encourages healthy habits. By working with the whole family, we can enhance the support people get to eat healthily and exercise more.
7. We embed psychologically informed approaches
We know that relationships to food, weight and physical activity can have psychological and emotional roots. As rates of overweight and obesity rise, we are also witnessing an increase in the prevalence of eating disorders in young people. By seeking to provide a psychologically informed approach, particularly within our commissioned services, we can promote more sustainable behaviour change and avoid perpetuating unhealthy relationships to food, activity, and the body.
8. We take a whole systems approach
A range of social, environmental, economic and cultural factors influence residents’ ability to eat healthily and get the exercise that they need. To support residents in reaching their health goals and to turn the tide on the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the population, we need to work collaboratively with local partner organisations. We will embed whole systems approaches and foster effective partnership working.
We acknowledge that many of the important levers sit at a national rather than local level. To achieve a truly whole systems approach, we will advocate for national action where required, to address the systemic barriers to physical activity and healthy eating.