This Morning: How to eat junk food and lose weight explains expert

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Rules stopping TV ads before 9pm and paid-for web adverts for products high in fat, salt and sugar were due next month to combat obesity.

But the Government is delaying them until October 2025 to give firms more time to reformulate their products and rethink marketing.

A bar on buy-one-get-one-free offers on junk food has already been pushed back a year amid fears it will add to the cost-of-living crisis.

Health charities branded the latest delays “disgraceful” and warned they would lead to more overweight children.

Piling on the pounds raises risk of heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes, while obesity costs the NHS £6.1billion a year. More than six in 10 adults are overweight or obese, with one in four children starting primary school too fat, rising to four in 10 when they leave.

Katharine Jenner, at the Obesity Health Alliance, called the delay “a shocking move”.

She added: “We urge Rishi Sunak to reverse this attack on child health and to shorten the delay to 2024, to give children a better chance to grow up healthy.”

Professor David Strain, chairman of the British Medical Association’s board of science, said the move showed “a lack of political will and courage that is difficult to fathom. The current advertising rules are not fit for purpose, and are not protecting youngsters from excessive marketing influence.”

He said 74 percent of people backed a watershed to stop junk food ads before 9pm on TV and online.

The new curbs would be among the toughest in the world and could cost broadcasters £200million a year in ad revenue, while social media firms stand to lose £400million.

The policy was announced after Boris Johnson blamed his weight for being seriously ill with Covid in 2020.

The Department of Health and Social Care said it took tackling obesity “seriously” and was providing £20million to trial treatments and tech to help save the NHS billions.

It added: “We remain committed to introducing restrictions banning adverts on TV for foods and drinks high in fat, salt, or sugar before 9pm, as well as paid-for adverts online.”

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