Fitness instructor challenges the government over junk food U-turn ban

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A local fitness instructor is launching a campaign in a bid to challenge the government on their delay of the cancellation of ‘buy one get one free’ deals for unhealthy foods and the advertisements of junk food.

Bailey Greetham-Clark, 19, from Cleethorpes, launched his company Be Great Fitness when he was just 17 years old and has seen it go from strength to strength.

After the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that the UK will become the most obese nation in Europe in a decade, Bailey says he plans to tackle the “obesity crisis” head-on through his new campaign.

Read more: Cleethorpes starts to feel cost of living hit – popular traders on season ahead as spending slows

Bailey told Grimsby Live: “Our new campaign that we’ve been working on for a while now, Food for Thought, is a platform to enable people from the general public to have a voice. We want to be disruptive in the fitness and health industries and we want to turn the tide on people’s bad experiences with health and wellbeing, so we’re launching it to document people’s stories and experiences. At the same time we want to speak out against the government and the decisions they make and hold them accountable for their actions.

“I’m going to be using all our media platforms and connections to be asking the right questions and saying, ‘Look, who is holding you accountable and why are you doing this?’ This campaign is going to be a huge thing for us to move things in the right direction before we’re the fattest nation in Europe.



The campaign, Food for Thought, is being launched after the WHO reported the UK would be Europe's fattest nation by 2033
The campaign, Food for Thought, is being launched after the WHO reported the UK would be Europe’s fattest nation by 2033

“We’re predicted to be the fattest nation in Europe by 2033, and 42 million adults are predicted to be overweight by 2040. And now, the government has decided to delay the cancellation of the BOGOF campaign. Obviously BOGOF is ‘buy one get one free’ and it’s mainly around junk food. We’ve got an obesity crisis at the moment and what we’re trying to do is speak out against the delay of the BOGOF restrictions.

“What they’re saying is, they’re looking at just cancelling BOGOF instead of creating positive solutions like implementing BOGOF within healthy, good and nutritious foods. They’ve got this one size fits all mindset which isn’t at all what should be done. Instead of thinking about it properly and creating a positive solution, they’ve decided to stop BOGOF altogether – and then all of a sudden, once again, Boris Johnson is now playing politics and has decided to delay the BOGOF restrictions.

“[The government] has also decided to delay the ban on the advertisements of junk food on TV and media. Their excuse for this is because of the cost of living crisis. So it just feels like they’ve had an easy cop-out when in actual fact our health is so detrimental at the moment and so important.”



BOGOF (buy one get one free) deals focus heavily on junk food items
BOGOF (buy one get one free) deals focus heavily on junk food items

Bailey added: “As a 19-year-old lad with my own fitness company, we’re here mopping up the mess and making fitness accessible to all while the government are doing things like that and delaying all these things that are vital to our health. We’ve been working all over the area and even nationally now to try and prevent further damage in the obesity crisis by implementing our sessions in schools, so we’re trying to clean up the mess that’s already been made and further made by our government. But now, we’re going to be acting as disruptors rather than cleaners and working on the offensive a little bit more now and taking things into our own hands.

“They’re blaming it on the cost of living crisis. The only people that will benefit from the delay are the junk food companies and the CEOs who own those companies. The health ministers say they are committed to doing everything they can, but they’re postponing things and taking a step in the wrong direction by doing so.

“We want to be in the politician’s faces and be on television programmes and morning talk shows while they’re sat eating their cereal. We want to be in their faces and saying, ‘Look, who’s holding you accountable?’ That’s our plan of attack.”

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