One of the surprise moves in the recent Budget was the unveiling of a sugar tax, sparking both praise and criticism from people across the country.
While we know consuming too much food and drink that is high in sugar can lead to weight gain and related health problems, far too few of us do enough to change our eating habits for the better.
Public Health England figures show that almost 25 per cent of adults, 10 per cent of four to five year-olds and 19 per cent of 10 to 11 year-olds in England are obese, with significant numbers also being overweight, costing the NHS around £5.1bn every year.
Sugar consumption is certainly an issue we need to address, but it is only part of a much wider debate we need to have on unhealthy lifestyles in this country. People are not generally eating healthily or doing enough physical activity, leading to the record levels of obesity we see in the figures above.
While tax can be a useful tool in helping the government raise funds, something of this magnitude calls for a more holistic approach. When tax levies are applied alone to specific items or actions it tends to be ineffective in changing behaviour. You only have to look at cigarettes.
Tobacco tax has increased by more than 40 per cent in the last five years, however 10 million adults in the UK smoke, with 200,000 children in the UK taking up the habit each year. Taxing the problem is slow to take effect as it only has an incremental impact on people’s lives.
To drive a more immediate change in people’s behaviour, we believe it’s important to focus on making it easier for people to do more of the things that are good for them, rather than harder to do the things that are bad for them - more carrot and less stick.
We believe this can have a more immediate and sustainable impact on people’s attitude and behaviour. We have seen first-hand the difference it can make when you enable someone to take steps towards living a healthier life, and reward them for doing so. It’s a powerful incentive, even for people who were previously unengaged.
Our core purpose at VitalityLife is to make people healthier and enhance and protect their lives. This means that when we design products, we believe they shouldn’t just protect clients when things go wrong, but also help them to get more out of life, giving real value every day and actively changing their health for the better.
On nutrition specifically, an example we have seen is how a discount we offer on access to Weight Watchers has made it easier for members to start changing what they eat, and we also offer discounted gym membership to help people be more active.
But most importantly, each initiative, be it focused on physical activity or healthy eating, is most effective when you bring them all together as part of an holistic solution, which allows people to improve their overall health in a way that they can tailor to suit them.
What’s more, you need to monetise the benefits in a simple and understandable way, for example by giving people points for healthy activities that translate into rewards. This can help to kick-start a real change in behaviour and an improvement in health.
Justin Taurog is distribution and marketing director at Vitality Life.
