srcg wake-up: Investing in the health of the nation

What a weekend! “The greatest weekend in British Olympic history!" Not my words, but those of Lord Moynihan, Chairman of the BOA. As I write this, Britain is sitting pretty at third in the Olympics medal table. To quote one commentator, "we now rule the world in sports where you sit down to compete”.

Our Olympians have delivered at a time when the nation desperately needed some good news and with the next games being in London in 2012 the confidence this performance gives Team GB (even that moniker doesn't seem to grate as much as it did) will provide us with a great springboard to believe we can do even better next time on home turf.

It has also rekindled a waning media and public interest in The Olympics and along with the heroics of Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps may just encourage a few more of today's youngsters to sit up and take notice that the X Factor is not the only route to fame in this country. Talking of over-inflated egos, did anyone even notice that the Premier League began this weekend?

Not every youngster will have the talent, will, luck or inclination to be a professional sports-person but a major contributing factor to their success will be the diet they follow. Not just when they are at their peak, but during their formative and teenage years and at this time every youngster should be given the opportunity to have access to healthy food.

This is why the joint initiative between the Department of Health and the ACS to fund retailers in deprived areas of England and Wales to encourage local people to eat healthily is so important. A similar initiative in Scotland has already shown positive results.

As school children are regular shoppers at local convenience stores, providing a healthy option at this 'access point', supported by the success of new sporting role models to stimulate demand, may encourage at least some of them to rethink what they are putting in their bodies.

Don't underestimate the role convenience stores can play in pulling the health of our nation back from the brink of a fat, sugar and salt induced torpor, by providing access at a neighbourhood level to healthy foods at a reasonable price.

Now I'm not so naïve as to believe that this initiative alone will halt the obesity epidemic sweeping this nation. Kids will always want 'junk food' (didn't you?) And I know that convenience store operators have to make a profit and for many, more fresh food means more waste, which is just like pouring money down the drain. So without a change in demand it will always be easier to sell the lower margin packaged goods that the kids want today.

But without someone taking the bold step to break this cycle the 9,000 people who die prematurely each year from an obesity related illness will have more than doubled by 2012. Wouldn't you rather look at a different number, a record medal haul for Team GB at our own Olympics and think that somehow, in some small way, you had something to do with that?